»—:܀ HOUKIBOSHI ܀:—«
by Kagome Taisho
Summary: ¦BLEANUYASHA CROSSOVER¦ no jutsu! Kagome leads a normal life after returning to her era, but a new evil threatens the Soul Society... and it involves the Shikon no Tama? What happens when a miko meets a Shinigami? ◄♱KagºIch♱►
1. Bleanuyasha 1

**Summary:** ♥ BLEANUYASHA CROSSOVER ♥ Ichigo is now in college & he meets one Higurashi Kagome. Sparks fly as they try to determine what the other is & a friendship blossoms. What happens when a miko and a Shinigami meet? Rated for language.

**A/N: **I don't know if there are any Bleach x Inuyasha crossover fics out there, I haven't read a lot of fics lately. I've been kidding around with one of my friends of having a Bleach x Inuyasha crossover, but I never thought I'd actually write one. _Sweatdrops._ The idea came to me one night and it wouldn't leave me alone.. I've been grinning like an idiot because of it so I decided to put myself out of misery and write it down. :P Bear with me, kay? Expect **some** Inuyasha and Bleach spoilers. Story is set after both Inuyasha and Bleach series as of October, 2005.

I still have doubts as to how people are going to react to this crossover. I have always been a crossover buff, but I've only managed to read and like Inuyasha x YYH crossovers so far. I gave a good friend of mine the first lines of what I managed to type up for this fic one day and she didn't call me crazy. She told me to post it, so I did. :P Feedback is good; flames burn. Just try to remember that this is a** CROSSOVER** fic, so of course some things have to change to accommodate the merging of two worlds.

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**H O U K I B O S H I**

**DISCLAIMER for every chapter:** I own everything that is Bleanuyasha and I also have a wall to sell you in China.

**Terms:**

Shinigami – God of Death; Death God

Kuso gaki – kind of like shitty brat if you translate it word per word, but it means "little shit"

Temee – bastard

Urusai – noisy, loud, fussy

Ahou – moron

Jyaki/Jaki – evil spirit/evil energy

Youkai – demon

Kongosouha – Diamond Spear Blast (Inuyasha's Tessaiga attack that shoots sharp diamonds on an enemy)

Soryuuha – Toukijin's Dragon Blast

Hamaya – Sacred Arrow (Arrow used to drive off evil)

Kazaana – (air hole/wind hole) Miroku's "Wind Tunnel"

Zanpakto – Soul Slayer

Inu – dog

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♥ **BLEANUYASHA 1 **♥

Was he going crazy? He blinked and frowned at what he was looking at, peering at it closely at it one more time.

Kurosaki Ichigo was not your average guy. He was 20 years old; he had two little sisters, a really annoying dad, and he was now on his way to earning his pre-med degree.

He also worked as a Death God in his spare time.

There was nothing average about his family, considering that his little sisters could also see ghosts and their father was the biggest loony bin in all of Japan. There was also nothing average about his two closest friends, who considered themselves his bestfriends (although he would never admit it out loud to them), if you considered that one was a guy who could shoot powerful spirit arrows from his hands and the other was a stuffed animal. That one of them had an unhealthy love for capes and the other had an unhealthy love for girl's bosoms were also a plus to the weird factor.

He considered himself pretty jaded; he had seen a lot in his short twenty years. Ghosts, Hollows, Death Gods, dead people, Menos Grandes, ugly people riding boars instead of horses, hot-tempered women living in weird houses, Kon in drag… talking cats… been there, done that, and he even had the t-shirt to show for it. You tend to get exposed to a lot when you're an all-powerful Shinigami.

But no matter how much he had seen, heard or been through, he had never encountered **this **before. THIS being different colored spirit threads emanating from one person. He instinctively knew before his Shinigami days that all living beings had their own distinct spirit threads. They were like DNA; your own spirit identity, your spirit thumbprint so to speak. He then learned from Ishida later on that Death Gods had red colored spirit threads, which was how the cape-wearing weirdo was able to tell what he was in the first place.

That had been five years ago. From then on, he had gone through a lot of things, but he had only seen **two** colors for spirit threads – red and white. Five years of being a Death God and he had never seen any other color – up until now. He rubbed his eyes, convinced that he was seeing things. Talking cats that could produce spirit balls he could deal with, but blue and pink-colored spirit threads? What the heck!

He was having an off day; a very, very _long_ off day. Now that he was more experienced, he had his very own glove that would turn him from an ordinary college student to a Shinigami in a split second. He still had Kon, since the kuso gaki was emotionally attached to him. Ichigo wasn't that heartless so he let the stuffed toy live with him. He was like a pet - one that didn't need to be fed or walked and served as a convenient outlet for his frustration at times. He also came in handy for Hollow fights, especially if he couldn't afford to have his human body lying prone in the sidewalk for everyone to see. He was just having an off day and that was that. He was just seeing things, that's all. There were no such things as blue and pink spirit threads. Period.

He frowned at the direction of the girl again, deciding that he probably needed to get his eyes checked.

Kon had obnoxiously woken him up this morning, payback for not noticing that the modified soul inside of the stuffed bear had attempted to 'run away' from home again, in an attempt to get more attention from him. Ever since he graduated from high school and moved out of his father's house to live at an apartment near the university, Kon had been complaining that nobody gave him the attention that he craved anymore. What it translated to was that there weren't as many female bosoms that cuddled the modified soul pretending to be a stuffed toy anymore. Inoue had gone to another university, so Kon's softest and most favorite haven was now unreachable for him and he blamed Ichigo for it.

He constantly badgered Ichigo about getting a girlfriend so that he could have some female attention, but Ichigo didn't have time for troublesome relationships with girls. Juggling getting a degree and performing Death God duties didn't really leave a lot of time for socializing with anyone. If Ishida didn't have the spiritual powers that he had, Ichigo wouldn't even **have **a friend in this school except for his sorry excuse for a lion stuffed animal. Chad was currently in Mexico, straightening some of his abuelo's unfinished affairs.

Not that he minded not having a lot of friends or a girlfriend in the least, because he didn't have time for those kinds of silly things anyway. He still kept in touch with his high school friends and college wasn't like high school. He saved a heap of people's necks from Hollow each week, nobody actually expected him to be captain of the uni soccer team now on top of that now, did they?

He brought two fingers to rub the bridge of his nose. Maybe it was a side effect of swallowing Kon's pill. The little shit was bad for his health and state of mind, he thought almost fondly. All he needed was a good cup of coffee and a break from Shinigami duties this weekend. Lately, more and more Hollows have been appearing. Both he and Ishida have been looking really haggard from having to destroy them before they managed to harm an innocent soul. Heroes get no sleep, someone should have told him that when he unwittingly signed up for the job.

He was just having an off day, that was all, he said to himself as he forced himself to look away from the girl. She was pretty, he guessed; if you preferred the long, sleek-haired, wide blue doe-eyed, innocent look with legs that seemed to go on forever. His eyes refused to follow his brains suggestion however, and he was thankful as he jolted upright when the bell finally rang indicating the end of class. Thank God it's Friday.

He took his eyes off of the girl as he gathered his things. Students filed out of the classroom and he lost track of her. He didn't really care, she didn't look dangerous nor did she have an evil air about her. He fully doubted if Hollows went as far as to disguise themselves as normal people anyway. They weren't that intelligent, they weren't that capable and normal people wouldn't be able to see them anyway so what was the point of having to disguise themselves?

Thank God it's Friday, was all he could think as he trudged back to his shared apartment.

Kon launched himself at Ichigo's face as the orange-haired guy stepped into the apartment that he shared with Uryuu. "Ichigo! I was so bored all day, there was nothing good on TV! Can't we go somewhere this weekend?" He said as he pulled on a fistful of orange hair. "You're probably the most boring person that I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. You're more boring that Ishida!" The stuffed toy continued to harass the boy, unmindful of the growing vein on the side of his head. "I bet Ishida has a girlfriend and he's just keeping it a secret because he feels sorry for you. You are so unsociable!"

The stuffed lion let out a strangled sound as he was lifted off of Ichigo's hair to come face to face with his face. "Temee, urusai! I just came home and you're harping at me worse than a desperate housewife!" He punted Kon into the nearest wall and took his shoes off, leaving his socks on as he haphazardly tossed his bag in a corner.

The stuffed toy hit the wall with a squeak and righted himself. "You're so cruel!" He wailed.

Ichigo found some coke in the refrigerator and opened one, drinking almost half of it in one sip. The overworked Shinigami was in need of some caffeine to block out Kon's complaints. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I don't get to go out anymore. Blah, blah, blah, you don't take me anywhere. Well duh, you're a stuffed animal. You should be thankful I brought you with me to the dorm instead of leaving you to Karin, you little turd. The modified soul continued to rail at him but then eventually got tired of being ignored after several minutes of ranting and the two of them settled on watching TV on the couch instead.

A commercial about a local Cosplay in town, with the special appearance of Don Kanonji himself came into view. He was rolling his eyes just as the front door opened and in came his roommate.

"Yo." He greeted. His roommate muttered a tired greeting back at him, removed his shoes and placed them neatly at the shoe rack.

"Long day?"

"Don't even ask me about it," Uryuu complained. Ichigo had no intention to ask him about it; he was just thankful that it was already the weekend and he didn't even encounter a single Hollow on his way back to the apartment tonight. "What's up with all the Hollows lately?" Ishida whined. Placing his book bag on the floor, he flopped down on the couch beside Kon and Ichigo. Apparently, he was going to share his long day with them despite him telling them not to ask. "I encountered two big ones, three smaller fries and five small ones which merged into a bigger Hollow before I even started first period today!" He looked like he had more to get off of his heaving chest.

"The Hollow activity has been rather odd lately," Kon contributed. Ichigo remained silent, preferring to watch a stupid show on the television, refusing to be reeled in to the Hollow conversation. It was a weekend, damn it. He was going to have his normal weekend for once. He deserved it after day after week after month of relentless Hollow fighting. Maybe he could go to that Cosplay convention… start feeling like a normal student again. Cosplay conventions were rather popular all throughout Japan these days. Maybe he could take Ishida; he wouldn't need to find a costume, he already had his white and blue suit with matching cape in his closet, he snickered.

"ODD!" Ishida's voice raised a pitch. "**Odd **does not describe the Hollow activity as of late. It has been freaking insane!" He said almost hysterically, the veins showing in his eyes. Being a Quincy meant that he was trained on dealing with Hollows on a regular basis, but 'regular' didn't mean every thirty minutes in a day. The Hollows themselves hadn't been difficult to defeat, but the constant fights, having to worry about being late to class, seeing a hollow pass by your classroom window and making up excuses to go to the bathroom each time was creating extreme havoc to his mental health. The frequency of the Hollow sightings didn't decrease as the days rolled into weeks and then into months either. If not, they just increased in number. An elite Quincy like him was still human, and humans needed rest, sleep and time to relax. He hasn't had any time to relax lately.

The stuffed toy nodded sympathetically to his plight. "I wonder what's attracting them," he thought out loud. "You didn't set off one of your baits again, did you?" He pointed accusingly at the last remaining member of the Quincy clan.

"Why would I do such a stupid thing like that, you idiot?" Uryuu straightened the glasses on the tips of his nose indignantly.

"Well, you did it once before, so what prevents you from doing it again?"

"I learned my lesson, that's what!" He huffed, clearly bent that someone would even think he was capable of doing such a thing. Once was enough, thank you very much. He wasn't stupid that he would not have learned his lesson the first time.

"So if it wasn't you, then what's causing all the Hollows to converge here? There must be something that draws them to this place or else we wouldn't have to deal with so many of them on a daily basis."

"There is no "we" in this, since it is only me and Ishida who deals with them, ahou." Ichigo said dryly.

"And who takes care of your body when you forcefully take my pill away, you ingrate!" The stuffed animal cried in protest.

"That still doesn't mean that you do any of the fighting."

Uryuu caught the stuffed animal as it launched itself at Ichigo. "Still, Kurosaki-kun," he adjusted his eyeglasses, "the mod soul is right, there must be something that's luring them here. This Hollow activity is not normal. Not normal at all," he said.

"Well how should I know? I'm just a Death God, not a freakin' detective!" Ichigo said crossly. He was tired of having to fight Hollows left and right twenty four seven, too.

The trio fell silent as they tried to think of what it was exactly that might lure such a large number of Hollows in their neighborhood. It wasn't Uryuu, that was for sure. He had learned from an early age how to quell his spirit powers; it was expected of a Quincy. Kon was undoubtedly not a factor either. He was a stuffed animal; Hollows had never been interested in him before so why start now? If it were five years ago, the three of them would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed that it would have been because of Ichigo.

Five years ago, the boy didn't know squat about how to keep his powers in check or cloak them in any way. He was like an open book, a lighthouse, beaconing and advertising his immense spiritual powers for everyone to see from here to Timbuktu. He couldn't actually quell his powers like Uryuu could, since his spiritual resources seemed to be limitless, but he had long since learned to cloak them. He too had learned from his past mistakes and didn't want to repeat them ever again. Nowadays he was even good in sensing spirit energies as well, not needing a silly cellphone or 'orders' from the Soul Society to track down Hollows. He was his own man; an independent Shinigami.

All three silently agreed that it wasn't because of Ichigo as well.

So what was it?

"I think I'm getting a headache from all this Hollow talk." Ichigo grumbled. "I just want a—" his complaint died in his throat as he felt the familiar presence. "Aw shit," was all he said as Ishida put a glove on with a skull on it and punched him into Shinigami mode.

"You felt it too, didn't you?" Ishida asked, flexing his hands as he took the glove off and put it back in his pocket.

"Duh, genius."

"Shut up."

He was halfway through the door when he noticed that he was the only one moving. "Aren't you coming?" He crossed his arms across his chest, his trusty Zanpak-to, the Zangetsu strapped on his back.

"Hey, I already had my fair share when I was coming home tonight," he answered smugly. "And besides, **I** am not a Shinigami, so it isn't my job."

"Temee…" Ichigo raised an angry fist at his roommate.

"Shouldn't you go and defeat that Hollow before it eats someone's soul, Ichigo?" Kon interrupted.

Cursing his two roommates, the irate Death God turned on his heel and hurried to where the disgusting feeling was pulling him to. All he wanted was a normal weekend, was that too much to ask for?

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All she wanted was just a normal weekend, was that too much to ask for?

Apparently it wasn't because for two years since the well closed, Higurashi Kagome had nothing but normal weekends anymore. It was hard to believe that she was no longer capable of traveling through time by the use of an old, dry well these days.

Kagome Higurashi was not a normal girl. On the day of her 15th birthday, a centipede demon pulled her down the old well that was located in the grounds of their shrine and into the Sengoku Jidai. There she met a hanyou who was pinned to a tree, a cute little baby kitsune, a lecherous monk with a roving hand, a surrogate grandmother, a strong demon slayer and a demon prince, just to name a few.

She also found out that she was the guardian of the Shikon no Tama, a powerful jewel that could grant any wish and gave the bearer an immeasurable amount of power. In the early days, when she didn't care about anything except how to get back to her own time, she didn't really care about the jewel and shattered it. From then on, she embarked on a journey to gather all the pieces and put them back together. The adventures that she engaged in ranged from enjoyable to dangerous ones, but each one was always memorable.

During her journey to gather the Shikon shards, she gained a lot of friends and even a few enemies on the way. One of them was a hanyou named Naraku whom they found was responsible for the bitter end of Inuyasha's blooming relationship with his first love. The same evil being was also responsible for the void on Miroku's hand that grew each passing day up until such time that it finally sucks the owner into it, killing him and everything within the vicinity in an instant. He was also responsible for the slaughter of Sango's entire village, and the enslavement of her little brother. Kohaku became Naraku's puppet of evil, a loyal slave to do his bidding.

He was truly evil and he made himself more powerful by absorbing other powerful beings into his own. One of the biggest mistakes he made was because of this. Maybe someone should have told him that it was a bad idea to try and absorb the Demon Prince of the West.

The battle against Naraku lasted for almost three years. The evil hanyou had gotten hold of most of the Shikon shards and constantly made attempts to steal Kagome's shard but their ragtag group of friends managed to fend him off each time. If he fought his battles on his own instead of sending his various detachments to do his dirty work for him, Kagome guessed that they would have ended the battle as soon as Sesshoumaru and Kouga finally decided to join forces with them, but that wasn't the case. Despite their combined powers, the hanyou still managed to elude them; and all because he was such a cunning coward.

Even the miko wanted to lose hope at one point. They had full demons on their team, combined with Inuyasha's power, as well as Miroku's and Sango's, yet from her point of view, they were always at a disadvantage. Miroku's Kazaana had grown wider by the passing of each year, and Inuyasha had hated the fact that despite how many upgrades his sword got, he still couldn't defeat Naraku. He had a hard time accepting the help of Kouga and Sesshoumaru as well, but in the end, they all had one goal – the destruction of Naraku. That alone made the reluctant inu hanyou relent in allowing additional members to their group.

When they finally managed to corner the real Naraku, the last battle had been fierce and long. Looking back, it was like a scene out of Return of the King, a battle echoing that of their fight with So'unga. Wave after wave after endless wave of youkai came at them until Miroku collapsed under the pressure of absorbing too much jyaki. Sango and Kirara had several nasty wounds but they still kept fighting, refusing to give up. Most of Kouga's wolves have been slaughtered, but Ginta and Hakaku continued to fight alongside Shippou, despite their obvious fear. Their will to survive and bring peace to the world overrode the pains of their injuries and the fear in their hearts.

What Kagome probably disliked most about that battle was that her friends wasted a lot of time and effort protecting her like she was some sort of porcelain figure; weak and breakable. She was really touched, but she didn't suffer through training daily with Sesshoumaru just to sit the last battle out. Inuyasha's older brother had been relentless and strict after he had offered to improve her skills one day; training her before the crack of dawn and then three more hours later after sunset after they set up camp for the night. She never took any type of karate classes back in her time, and she never actually managed to beat Sesshoumaru in a one-on-one battle, but considering that her sparring partners were mostly youkai, she probably could take down Japan's taijutsu champion without breaking sweat, no bragging intended. Granted, she suspected that sometimes Kouga and Miroku went easy on her, but those lessons coupled with her spiritual training from the monk had strengthened her throughout the years and gave her the experience that she lacked to further improve her skills. She might not have been as impressive as Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru, considering that she wore her school uniform and was often described as a weird-looking girl in the Sengoku Jidai, but she was powerful in her own right.

In the end, they never would have won without their unexpected trump card. Kagura betrayed Naraku and sacrificed herself to destroy his heart, allowing the combination of Inuyasha's Kongosouha, Sesshoumaru's Soryuuha and Kagome's Hamaya which was powered by Onigumo's grave soil that finished off the evil bastard.

As the culmination of all three attacks hit the evil hanyou, he began to disintegrate right before their eyes before the pieces turned into flashes of light that resembled a fireworks show. The unexpected allies stood rooted to their spots, enthralled at the sight. After their injuries were assessed and taken care of, they all refused to believe that Naraku was truly gone even after the void from Miroku's hand disappeared. The evil hanyou had tricked them once before already, so they were suspicious. They were unbelieving even when Kagome retrieved the incomplete Shikon ball that was in Naraku's possession from a stoic Kikyou. It was too good to be true and the reality that they finally won after years of fighting took longer to process. It was when Sango finally squealed out of character and launched herself in Miroku's embrace, tears of happiness streaming from her eyes, that the actuality of the situation sunk in.

Naraku was dead, they won.

She never got to celebrate their triumph with her friends though. As soon as she prayed the whole Shikon no Tama back together in one piece, it went and reabsorbed itself back into her body. A blinding light flashed after that, even brighter than the fireworks show that they were privy to before. Several startled shouts echoed out and hands reached out to grab hold of her but all they managed to catch was thin air. The Shikon was complete and the miko was gone.

Kagome awoke in her bedroom when she regained consciousness. Bolting out of her bed in breakneck speed she rushed to the well house, still wearing her pajamas, ignoring her family's startled looks. Without hesitation she jumped into the well and almost knocked several of her teeth out at the impact of hitting the solid ground. The well was closed; it refused to open for her anymore. She sagged to her knees as she clutched the dirt beneath her hands, digging and praying for the well to let her pass through time once more. Just once, her mind begged, just to say goodbye to her friends.

But alas, the well refused to open. She began to become afraid of the fact that maybe she had just imagined the last three years of her life. She cried; deep wracking sobs that came from her gut bounced off of the walls in her solitary confinement. She never got to say goodbye to any of them. What happened had been so unexpected that she was literally gone before they could all blink. She was never going to see her friends ever again.

Souta came to retrieve her a few minutes later, taking her back to their house and back to bed under orders from their mother. Mama was appalled at Kagome's rash behavior, scolding her for the scare that she gave them. She found out from her family that they found her lying unconscious at the bottom of the well the day before. Buyo had once again strayed from Souta at mealtime and ended up luring him into the well house. They asked her what happened and she told them about the last battle, and what happened after she put the pieces of the Shikon no Tama together.

Kagome was despondent after that. The guardian of the Shikon no Tama returned to school and to an ordinary life but she still reminisced about her comrades. She hoped that they lived full, happy lives in the past. As long as they were happy, she was too. She felt sorry for not being able to properly say goodbye to them, especially to Inuyasha, who had grown to be the bestfriend a girl could ever have. She had long let go of her silly crush for him, even wished him luck and happiness with Kikyou. It still hurt though, that she didn't even get to tell any of them how much they mattered to her or how much she enjoyed the last few years of her life, traipsing through Japan's countryside.

She missed them everyday. She missed her surrogate sister Sango – who was she going to have girl talks with now? Souta was a guy; he didn't understand the inner workings of a woman's mind. She missed her kitsune cub – she felt cold sleeping alone in her bed now. She missed Miroku; he was like the perverted big brother that she never had. She missed everyone so much; she even missed her intense training sessions with Sesshoumaru.

Late at night when everything is quiet, she imagined what lives they may have lived. Miroku and Sango probably got married and had lots of babies. She worried about her dear little Shippou, but was confident that Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru would take good care of him and raise him well. Good thing she got them to promise that beforehand. Inuyasha must have settled with Kikyou in the village, living happily ever after. She wondered if any of them were still alive.

Considering that demons had longer life spans than humans did, Kagome began to hope and even imagine the likes of Sesshoumaru showing up on her doorstep one day. Maybe if he was still alive, he would drop by and say hi, catch up on old times. As the years passed, there was no sign of anyone, living dead or youkai, ever showing up to reminisce about past adventures. The young miko was sad, but life had to go on.

Eventually she conquered her sadness. There was still that lingering heaviness in her chest whenever she thought about their last moments together, but she decided to focus on their good times instead. If she made it back in time and the world didn't seem like it was populated with youkai and was ruled by an evil hanyou, that meant that they completed their mission and her friends lived to the fullest, right?

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… So how'd you like it? What do you think? n.n


	2. Bleanuyasha 2

**_Huggles Koyuki-hime._**

**Night Owl 123 – **Yo! _Waves enthusiastically. _I was afraid I wasn't going to see you anymore after than RK fic. XD OMGOMGOMGOMG LOLOL Can you tell I'm happy to see you? XD

**RedPBass – **Sorry! _Sweats._ I just can't help myself… the words flow out of me when I type. _Sweats some more. _I don't like 500 word chapters either. _Shakes head. _

**Sugar –** XD lmao XD What else can I say? Thanks for telling me to post this. :D _Shifty eyes. _X Bwahaha X

**MassReader –** Thanks! n.n

**Bakageta –** Don't you worry about the Bleach girls… they'll make an appearance, it wouldn't be complete without them. I just couldn't fit everything that I wanted to all at once in one chapter that's why there wasn't much mention of them on the first one. I'm just doing my dream ships – IchiKag, Renji/Rukia, probably Orhime with Uryuu. But they'll definitely take a backseat to Ichigo and Kagome.

**Spiffiness **– I'm a HUGE, huge huge huge huuuuuuuuuge times a trillion Sesshoumaru fan, so… cackles.

**A/N:** Bah! I REALLY did intend to update sooner, but the icons kept me distracted. Must… close… Photoshop… noooooooooooo! **Thank you **to everyone who reviewed and didn't accuse me of being crazy for writing such crap. XD

**DISCLAIMER for every chapter:** Are you still interested in that wall I have in China?

**Terms:**

**Teichou** – Captain (I couldn't get myself to calling them "Captain Aizen", it just sounds… so wrong… _sweats_. So I'm calling them "Aizen-teichou", etc, okay?)

**Chikuso** – Damn it

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**- BLEANUYASHA**™** 2 -**

"Tell me why I let you talk me into coming here again." She scowled as she pulled on her outfit. This was ridiculous; she should never have agreed to do this even if Cosplaying was a really, _really_ HUGE thing in Japan right now. Almost everywhere you turn, you see kids of all ages wearing costumes from their favorite animé. These people didn't need to wait for Halloween; they donned their costumes whenever a convention was organized. It had a huge cult following, but she wasn't really interested in it. Her brother had whined and begged for her to come with him on this particular one though, thus explaining the predicament that she was in right now.

Souta was wearing what looked like a white military uniform of some sort, decorated with blue trimmings, complete a red shirt tucked neatly inside his matching white pants. There was a funny-looking patch on his left sleeve which was an Orb logo, he explained. What "Orb" was supposed to be she didn't know exactly, but she had a mental image of a ball in her head. He was supposed to be some guy named Kira Yamato, he had patiently explained to her. A superb Gundam pilot, he added. At her blank-eyed look, he went into detail what Gundams were and listed the list of credentials that his hero, this Kira, had. She listened with one ear and the information leaked out of the other. What he was saying sounded totally unbelievable.

Her brother used emotional blackmail into making her feel bad about not spending time with her anymore, and she found herself caving. She didn't want to go to this convention. She didn't even watch animé. Her teenage years have been spent mostly in the Sengoku Jidai and there were no television sets or electricity there. She didn't like putting on a costume as well. One of the reasons why she retained her school uniform to travel around Japan's countryside in the feudal era was so she would feel normal. She certainly didn't feel normal now. Since she didn't have time to get a costume custom made for her like Souta did, she settled on wearing her traditional miko garb. Technically, it really was a costume, wasn't it? She was going to wring Souta's neck when they got home; she couldn't believe she agreed to this nonsense. The bow and quiver strapped to her back, completing the miko look, were a welcome addition though. She felt at home again. The weight of the 'weapons' were familiar to her, soothing even.

The modern girl wearing traditional miko garb felt her costume was tame compared to the others. A lot of people were dressed in orange jumpsuits completed with yellow wigs that, she guessed, were supposed to make them look like blondes. The sea of yellow and orange was almost blinding, her eyes hurt from just looking at it. Orange was such a gaudy color. She can't recall ever owning any piece of orange clothing in her entire life and was thankful for the fact, seeing how these people looked here now.

Her little brother looked really ecstatic, going from one booth to another and taking pictures with other people in costumes as soon as they arrived. He went off to reenact some scenes from a bunch of other people who looked similar to him costume-wise and she found herself wandering around the convention alone, not really having a destination in mind. She giggled at the irony that she almost willingly wore the traditional miko clothing now that she was back in the modern era while she had adamantly refused to do so before in the time when such attire was deemed proper for someone like her. She even fondly recalled that convention they had in school, long ago. Inuyasha had fit in perfectly amongst the crowd with his Tessaiga and red kimono perfectly because lots of people were dressed in costumes as well. Ah, those were the days.

At least her little brother was having a lot of fun, if his inattention to her were any indication. She didn't mind, she liked seeing her brother happy. It was tough for him too, in a way he also lost contact with the only person he felt had been like the older brother he never had. Kagome knew that she could never fill that role for him.

Stepping outside, she found a quiet spot and sat on a bench. Next time, she should be the one who gets to pick what gathering they go to. It was only fair, after all. There should be a Cherry Blossoms festival soon.

The young miko was lost in her thoughts until a shiver ran through the back of her head straight to her spine. It was bone-chilling and terrifying; it was as if someone's heart died and there was a huge gaping hole in their chest. It was painfully overwhelming to someone like her; a miko who was honed to be sensitive to the feelings of those around her. She could normally block these feelings out; she wondered why she couldn't right now. Looking around, she decided to investigate. Maybe someone just got dumped nearby, nursing a terribly broken heart.

Cautiously approaching where the presence of the heartbreak seemed the strongest, she peeked around the corner of the building to take a look and came face to face with a huge youkai. She was so surprised; she stood stock still for a moment. Aside from Mistress Centipede and the Noh Mask, she wasn't aware that there were other youkai in the city. She just assumed that they were already extinct in her time.

Instincts kicked in as the youkai spotted her and let out a blood-curling howl. Kagome wanted to kick its mouth in and tell it to keep quiet or else people will come running and see them. She settled for rolling over to the side instead, as she avoided its attack. The youkai was at least five times her height, with a snake-like body, two hands and was wearing a white mask. There was also a gaping hole in its chest, fueling her curiosity. What type of youkai was this? She had never seen such a species of demon before. She knew that it took a lot to actually kill demons; Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru often punched each other a new hole through their gut during their sibling fights, but never did they look like this monster in front of her right now. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the monster's wound wasn't even bleeding. How weird.

The weird monster lifted its tail again, swinging it around menacingly, reminding Kagome that she didn't have time to study it up close. She needed to purify it out of here before any innocent bystanders got curious and decided to investigate, ending up hurt or demon food. Expert hands reached behind her for an arrow. She considered _not_ using her bow and quiver, but since they were there and she hasn't had the chance to show off her skills anymore lately, she decided why not. She could only use bow and quiver on festivals now, entering in contests. Grandpa would probably frown at her for returning the set back with one arrow short, but he would understand after she told him that it was for a good cause, right? She notched the arrow on her bow gracefully and took aim.

The fight was over in an instant as her streaking blue projectile hit the target. It hit the demon right on the mark, dead center of its mask, cutting its intimidating scream off as it disappeared into sparkly dust. Don't worry, you're going to a better place now, she assured the youkai silently as she stared as the sparkles faded.

Feeling quite proud of herself and resisting the overwhelming urge to flash a victory sign, Kagome dusted her hands off together and gave herself a mental pat in the back for a job well done. No demon was going to run rampant in this city if she had anything to say about it. Her work here was done. She hooked the bow back to her shoulder, turned to walk back to the convention and ran straight into a brick wall.

"Ow," she said as she lost her balance and started to fall to her bottom. A hand reached out and caught her before she dropped to the ground.

"Watch where you're going, will you?" A grumpy voice snapped from behind the wall as a guy wearing flaming orange hair and a black kimono ran past them. "And hurry up!" He added over his shoulder, not waiting for his companion. Was that a real sword strapped to his back?

"Are you all right?" The orange guy's companion, the wall, asked as he let her arms go after she regained her balance, albeit a little reluctantly. He righted the pair of glasses on top of his nose that had gone askew from their collision. The wall was more than a head taller than her and he probably worked out or something, judging from how her body complained from their unexpected impact. Unlike his companion, his hair was black and it was flat. He was also wearing a white ensemble with a matching cape.

Um, Batman is that you? "I'm alright, sorry I didn't see you." She mumbled in apology, looking him in the eye. When did Batman start bleaching his clothes?

A slight blush stained the wall's cheeks as he fidgeted with his glasses again. "It was my fault," he said. Right after he grabbed the girl and skin touched skin, he started to feel strange sensations… and a strange craving to taste something.

Was it just her or was he peering at her like she was some sort of candy? She just shrugged and offered him a smile. "I better be going," she said. "My brother's probably looking for me by now… and you look like you're in a hurry." She bowed in apology. "I'm sorry again, gomen nasai!" Backing away slowly from the weird guy, she waved and then sprinted back to where she last saw Souta.

Ishida Uryuu followed her retreating form with curious, appraising eyes until she disappeared amongst the throng of Cosplayers. Well that was odd. The pleasant sensations humming in his veins started to subside a little when the girl left.

"Huh, how weird," Ichigo said as he reappeared beside him, hefting his Soul Slayer with a trademark frown on his face.

"What's weird?" Ishida asked, taking his eyes off of where the girl dressed in traditional miko garb disappeared to.

"I got there and there was no Hollow." The frown on his face deepened.

The Quincy quirked a brow at him. "And that is a bad thing because…?"

"I didn't say it was a bad thing!" Ichigo snapped. "I'm just saying it's weird. That's the first time that's happened since your so-called intervention years ago." Orange hair stared at him some more. "Are you sure you're the last one?"

Ishida bristled. "Sure I'm sure," he muttered and shook his head. As if his father would actually come to a place like this.

Ichigo shrugged. "Oh well, less work for me so I can't really complain. It's too bad I had to run all the way here for nothing though… Oh hey!" He suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the crowd. "It's that Cosplay convention on TV." He remembered it from the commercial on TV days ago. "Maybe you should go. You'd win first prize for costume for sure," he sniggered.

"Shut up," Ishida said. "This," he fumed, pointing at his getup, "is not a costume. It's my family's sacred clothing, worn by those who have sworn to protect this world from the Hollows."

Ichigo waved a hand at him dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it, sheesh! No need to give me another lecture about your history." He shifted to the side, adjusting Zangetsu effortlessly. "So you don't want go there then?"

Ishida considered his offer for several seconds. Ichigo braced himself for another 'Pride of the Quincy' speech. "I'm kind of interested actually. That girl I ran into… she was very… interesting…" and different, his inner self added.

"Girl, huh? What girl?"

"That girl I ran into, remember? You saw her just several minutes ago." He replied in a deadpan. Kurosaki's attention span was astounding sometimes.

"Oh her?" He scratched the top of his orange hair, recalling. "Come to think about it, she looked kind of familiar... I wonder who she was dressed up as."

"She looked like a traditional shrine maiden," Ishida supplied, looking at the building where an Cosplay convention was held. They didn't come here to join the convention. Not that Ichigo could at his current condition anyway… well, he could, but what was the point of attempting to play dress-up if normal people couldn't even see you? Uryuu was examining his new Quincy garb when they felt the familiar presence of a Hollow in the neighborhood. It wasn't just a normal one, the aura implied that it was a Huge Hollow at least, and he didn't want to waste time changing to his normal clothes as he rushed out with his Death God friend in his complete Quincy ensemble. The Hollow presence had been a strong one, so he decided to go just in case something went wrong. Why it wasn't here anymore was a mystery.

"A shrine maiden?" A bird chirped overhead and the wind blew. Ichigo scratched his orange head.

"Yeah," he agreed. He wondered which character she was supposed to be portraying. "Say Kurosaki, you didn't feel any strange aura from that girl, did you?"

"Strange?" His brow further furrowed in thought. "I didn't notice anything, why?"

The last of the Quincy Clan shook his head, letting the subject drop. "Nah, forget it. Never mind, it's nothing." The feelings that swirled inside him when he touched the girl weren't the same as how he had felt for Inoue-san, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. They were almost… well, he didn't know what they were exactly. The contact was brief but his skin tingled all over. It brought him back to when he first bumped shoulders with Ichigo but not quite. The stress was starting to_ really_ get to him.

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The weekend ended too soon for everybody and Monday rolled in once again, giving way to Tuesday and then to Wednesday. By Thursday, the lone Shinigami and Quincy were hanging by mere threads unto their sanity.

Hellish was the first word that came to mind, followed by nightmare and insane. As predicted, this week's Hollow situation was worse than last week's. Both were thinking that they were being punished by living hell on earth. They were stuck in a nightmare and if it didn't end soon, they were going to go insane.

Tonight wasn't any different; or early morning, considering that it was already three in the morning. The overworked Shinigami just finished strapping his Soul Slayer on his back before he yawned widely. He was so damn tired that caffeine had lost its kick now. His muscles were straining and he didn't even have to do his daily sit-ups to stay fit anymore. If he hurried, and there were no more Hollow interruptions, he would actually get at least four hours of sleep today, the most he would have for this week. Shuffling his feet, he headed home.

"Hoooo," said a condescending voice behind him. "Don't tell me the great Kurosaki Ichigo has gotten so soft during the years that he can no longer keep his head up after just one Hollow."

Turning around with a visible tick in his forehead, he confronted the newcomer. "Temee, what do you think you're saying?" He whirled around and glared. A man with the same black clothes as him and a sword attached to his hip was casually leaning against a lamp post, a smirk playing on his lips. He had flaming red hair that was tied into a neat ponytail on top of his head and he was wearing a dark pair of sunglasses.

"I'm saying that you've gone soft, Ichigo." He tugged the sunglasses up to his forehead, covering the intricate markings on his skin and revealing his eyes at the same time. "You look really tired. Long day?"

"Why wouldn't I be tired, stupid? I have been fighting more than at least three to five Hollows a day FOR THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS!" He answered almost hysterically, waving his hands in a fit. "I haven't even seen a single person from the Soul Society help us out! Isn't there supposed to be someone assigned to this area? Your guys have been slacking off!" He marched right up next to Renji and shouted at his face, the veins in his forehead increasing, and he could almost feel his fangs growing. He finally had someone from the Soul Society here and he had a lot to complain about, damn it. He pointed an accusatory finger right in front of the redhead, a centimeter away from his face. "Just because there's a local Death God here doesn't mean that you guys shouldn't do your job anymore! And where the hell have you been! It has been months since I've seen you! And where's Rukia? Have you been treating her right? I swear, if you haven't, I'm going to go to Soul Society again and kick your ass!" He panted from his tirade.

Renji blinked at his finger, unfazed. "Gee honey, I had no idea you missed me **that** much. I promise I'll try not to go away for too long next time," the Lieutenant cheekily replied.

"Why you…" Ichigo grabbed a fistful of Renji's haori and shook him hard.

The redhead merely chuckled, used to the temper displayed by his longtime friend. Disengaging himself easily from the grip, he shook his head fondly. "Rukia's doing fine. She's… sorry … she couldn't come here herself, but Kuchiki-teichou had been uncharacteristically overprotective lately," probably making up for lost time, he added silently. "He wouldn't allow his little sister to take up any missions, making me do them instead. So I have been busy too. Heroes get no rest, didn't you know that?"

Ichigo scoffed. "You're no hero."

"I just came to invite you…" Renji continued, not taking the bait.

Renji and Rukia have grown even closer during the last five years, their childhood friendship blossoming into something more, and finally culminated to Renji proposing to Rukia. Rukia had agreed to marry him happily, as the love between the two were as clear as crystal, but being a member of the Kuchiki Clan, there were certain protocol that had to be followed.

Even if Renji had long ago achieved the second stage of his Soul Slayer, the Bankai release, he still chose to remain to serve under the 6th Division under Kuchiki Byakuya. Having achieved both Renkai, the first stage of release, and Bankai, which was the second stage, he was more than eligible to try for Captainship after more training. It normally took at least ten years more until one could be experienced enough to vie for a Captainship, but Renji had declined, saying that being a Captain only gave him more work and more things to worry about. He was perfectly happy where he was right now, and he didn't want to part from his current squad. Not yet. Not until he surpassed his current Captain. The grudge wasn't there anymore even if the (one-sided) rivalry still lingered.

The first reason being that after his… _slight_ defection years ago, he and his captain had finally come to a deeper understanding about each other. No one was actually able to tell how the man with the hair noodles ever felt, considering that he hardly ever showed any kind of emotion, but due to the warped almost friendship he had with his captain, Renji did. After years and years of working for him and finally achieving that, the stray dog in him didn't want to let go of that just yet.

The second reason being that working for Kuchiki-teichou meant that he felt closer to Rukia as well. That was the main reason why he worked hard to join the 6th Squad in the first place, if you didn't count the obsession to surpass one of the nobles. After Rukia graduated immediately from the academy and got adopted into the Kuchiki household, Renji trained like there was no tomorrow just so he could make it to one of the Thirteen Guardian Squads of the Court of Pure Souls.

"So you're really getting married?"

The redhead gave him a look, ignoring his question. "It's a really special occasion so the Drifters who managed to make their way into the Court of Pure Souls last time are going to be allowed to enter Soul Society with special escort this time."

Ichigo's left brow lifted in surprise. Were these the same people who wanted to eliminate them just because they wanted to rescue their friend years go?

Renji continued, he seemed to be in a hurry. He specified more details, the time and place, citing his apartment for the pickup. He extended invitations to all the Ryoka, meaning Chad, Ishida and the others were invited as well. "Don't be late, or else you can't come."

"Does this mean I have to get a tux?"

"A.. tux?" The red haired Shinigami echoed, confused.

"You know, for the wedding. Or a formal kimono. I don't have either one," Ichigo thought out loud. What did people wear when they went to the wedding of Death Gods anyway? "I could probably rent one, and Ishida, too. And Chad as well. Inoue probably has a dress ready for such occasions so I don't need to worry about her but I should tell her just to make sure…"

"Just be there." Renji replied impatiently, breaking Ichigo's one-sided conversation with himself. He wished he had more time to spend talking around like this, but he had duties to attend to. "The escorts will be prompt, so don't be tardy."

"Duh stupid, they're coming to my apartment so how can I be late?"

Renji glowered at him. "Just be sure to be there! Rukia will be unhappy if you and the others don't show up to the wedding."

"Yeah, yeah we'll be there," he assured, waving his hand in assurance. He and the others wouldn't miss this for the world.

"See you in three weeks then," the Shinigami bid goodbye and then disappeared to the night.

"Hey, wait!" He looked around in search of Renji but the Shinigami was no longer there. He swore loudly. He didn't know what he could get them for a wedding present. _Chikuso._

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She should have just stayed home today. Skipped school, laid back and watched TV all day.

She was doing the same routine she had last week for this week, the only difference was that Kagome felt like someone was following her. She looked around looking for signs of anybody suspicious but everyone around her looked like they were minding their own business, milling about normally. There was that familiar gnawing feeling in her chest again, much like that time when she saw that demon in the convention, but it was somehow faint. As if it was stalking her.

Kagome hugged her protected books closer to her ample chest and crossed the road quickly as the light turned green. She felt so weirded out, all she wanted was just to go home and go to bed. Sleep deprivation can cause paranoia sometimes.

It started raining earlier this morning.

What began as a slight drizzle in the early hours was now a full-blown storm. Hard rain the size of mothballs poured from the unforgiving heavens, bruising the mere mortals on the ground. At this rate, she wasn't going to be able to go home until the day after tomorrow. Some streets tended to flood when it rained this hard and traffic was a mess. She could take the train and stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow stragglers like her but she was too far away from the station.

She never did like the drowned cat look.

Why did she not listen to the weatherman for just this once and brought an umbrella? Or a raincoat, a raincoat would have been preferable. Umbrellas broke and got blew away by strong winds, like the one barely passing in front of her right now. Yep, a raincoat would have been preferable. Maybe she should bring one with her all the time, especially during the rainy season. Mhm, that was what she was going to do if she ever survived this unforgiving rain.

It wasn't any consolation that she wasn't the only one who seemed unprepared for this onslaught either. Who would have? Yesterday had been bright and sunny, without a cloud present in the sky. Nobody believed the weatherman when he said that they were having a hurricane on top of a storm the day after that.

A flash of lightning streaked in the sky followed by the distinct rumble of thunder. She, among with third of the people seeking shelter in the bus stop, jumped. Lightning reminded her of Shippou and the Thunder Brothers. If she wasn't so cold, soaked to the bone that she was right now, she would have probably felt the familiar pang of missing her little kit right about now.

She shivered instead.

Skirts were so easy to move in, but they absolutely didn't offer any warmth or protection when she was wet. She was so damn cold, her teeth were chattering. She couldn't feel her toes anymore. There goes a perfectly good pair of sandals, she thought wryly, wriggling her toes. She stared at them, wondering if they were salvageable.

"Kagome-chan?"

Kagome turned to the voice, her eyes widening in surprise as she saw her cousin. Both girls squealed in glee, in the midst of pounding rain and annoyed people waiting for the darn bus to arrive.

"I thought I saw someone familiar." Her cousin said.

"Are you taller than me now? Oh my, how you've grown!"

"Look who's talking! Is that really you? When was the last time I came to visit?"

"Too long," Kagome reprimanded, pulling away from the fierce hug. "You have to visit more often. Mama gets really worried about you, you know."

Kagome didn't have a lot of cousins, thus the few she had she was close to, even though they didn't see each other on a regular basis. The young girl talked to her cousin on the phone a lot whenever she wasn't gallivanting along Feudal Japan in her early teen years, but she, like everybody else, was under the impression that Kagome had been a very sickly child growing up.

"Oh my, you're drenched through," her cousin observed, brows knitting in disapproval. "We have to get you out of the cold as soon as possible!" Her cousin declared, tugging her out of the bus stop and into the pounding rain.

Kagome tugged back. "Wait, where are we going?" She looked longingly at the meager shelter that the bus stop provided. Already, people were taking up the space that she was just forced to vacate. She tried to get her arm back, but her cousin was stronger than her.

"I have friends who live nearby. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we took shelter for one night."

But I don't want to take shelter on some stranger's house, inner Kagome protested. _I want to go home!_ "… Shelter for one night?"

"Someone with delicate health like you should get out of those wet clothes as soon as possible. You can call Auntie and tell her that the roads are flooded and that you've taken refuge with me."

She was right; the chances of being able to go home in one piece did look slim at the moment… Only people who had a death wish would attempt to brave this weather for further travel. "But…"

"No buts, let's go!" _When did she get so bossy? _Kagome followed meekly behind the other busty brunette as they braved strong winds and pouring rain two blocks from the bus stop and into an apartment complex. The entrance was soaked, probably due to the tenants coming home totally drenched to the bone.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to do this?"

"Yes I'm sure. I've been friends with these guys since junior high and they're really nice people."

_If you say so… _

They managed to wring the excess water out of their clothes near the entrance, so as not to spread it all over the place and possibly create a puddle for someone to slip on. They didn't have to take the elevator, opting to climb the stairs to the second floor instead. Hand in hand they stopped in front of a door and her cousin's knock was answered a few seconds later by a tall, wiry, well-built man wearing glasses.

His eyes widened into saucers at the sight of two very drenched women on his doorstep. He took in one drowned appearance after another and then blinked before recognition graced his features as he turned to his friend. "Inoue-san! What happened to you?"

_What was he turning red for?_

Kagome sneezed into her left hand, her right still held between Inoue's dainty ones.

"Excuse me."

"Bless you." Uryuu ushered them both in and shut the door behind him. They took their soggy shoes off and set them aside near the entrance. Walking into the bathroom, Uryuu produced several fluffy towels and offered them to both girls, trying his hardest to not look below their faces. Their clothes were plastered to their skin, acting like a mold, accentuating every curve in both their bodies. His friend's cousin didn't look anything like her, aside from the both of them being short and well-endowed.

Orihime accepted the towels gratefully from Uryuu and proceeded to pat her cousin dry. "I was on my way home but it was really hard to get any transport. I thought I could stay over at your place at least for the night," she smiled in apology, "or just until the heavy rain and flooding subside."

"Of course, Inoue-san," Uryuu agreed immediately. A real gentleman never turned a lady in need down. "Kurosaki is out for the night and will be back on the weekend so I have the apartment all to myself." He spared a glance at the stuffed toy lying motionlessly at the couch and then glanced curiously at his friend's companion.

"This is my cousin, Kagome." Orihime introduced them. "And this is my friend, Ishida-kun."

Kagome and Uryuu smiled at each other. "I believe we've met before…?" Uryuu prompted.

The young girl had to think for a moment before she nodded in memory. "Bumped into each other is more like it," she said with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Kagome-san." They shook hands. "I've never met any of Inoue-san's cousins before."

"Our mothers were sisters," Orihime explained, rubbing her cousin dry so hard that Kagome's skin was feeling raw.

"I can dry myself, Orihime-chan." The girl protested, wrestling the second towel from her to no avail.

"Hush Kagome-chan. Let me take care of you," Orihime ignored Kagome's resistance, picking up her third towel. "Kagome-chan's mama wanted me to live with them after onii-san passed away but I refused to let the apartment go since it made me feel like I was closer to him that way." She shared as she continued picking Kagome's wet clothes from her skin and inserting a dry towel under to pat her dry.

Uryuu blinked owlishly at the sight of two attractive girls in his living room, clothes wet and one girl's hands under the other's shirt. He brought a hand up to his nose and tilted his head a little bit backwards and upwards, trying his best to will the nosebleed away. That familiar pull wasn't helping much either. His eyes were rapidly starting to glaze over.

"Ishida-kun," Orihime prodded him for the third time. The boy looked like he was in a slight daze. "Ishida-kun," she tried again as his eyes regained their focus. "Would you mind horribly if we were to borrow a couple of bathrobes and nightshirts? We didn't come prepared for the impromptu slumber party," she grinned lopsidedly in apology.

No amount of will-power was going to prevent that nosebleed if he didn't stop the images running rampant through his head. "O-of course, let me go get them for you." He rushed off to get the said items.

"You don't need to treat me like an invalid, Orihime, I can dry and change myself on my own. I'm a big girl now," Kagome flushed from the attention that her cousin was giving her. She wasn't a baby anymore, even if her cousin was treating her like one.

"I just don't want you to get sick again, Kagome." Orihime replied, her voice full of concern. She didn't want her cousin to catch a cold and keel over. The young woman was so delicate, even more delicate than her.

"You should take care of yourself too, you're still wet." Kagome pointed out and then sneezed again. "Excuse me."

"Bless you." Orihime finished with her hair. "See, you're already starting to get sick. What if you get a cold?" She frowned in worry.

Uryuu returned a moment later bearing two fluffy robes and two masculine nightshirts, mumbling an apology. The girls accepted them gratefully, waving his apology aside and giving him an apology of their own for the unexpected intrusion. He repeated that he didn't mind helping a friend out and that he was going to be alone in the apartment until the weekend anyway, Ichigo had gone straight to his family's house from class today, spending the weekend there and coming back on Sunday.

As the girls used the bathroom and changed out of their wet clothes to put it on the washer, he prepared some tea to help warm them down. Orihime looked really concerned for her cousin's health, ignoring the girl's protests about her being fine and her sneezing was not a matter of concern.

"I suppose you're going to tell me that the shivering is normal as well."

"Well yes it is. It **is** cold, you know." The young miko replied indignantly. She wasn't weak. She was a healthy, young woman in her prime and no amount of rain was going to make her sick.

Uryuu turned the thermostat up as the girls used the phone to call the shrine and inform Mama Higurashi. "I'm really sorry about this," Kagome apologized once again after she hung up the phone. She was terribly embarrassed to intrude upon people she didn't know like this. Her mom had been relieved to know that she was safe, thinking it was a good idea to spend the night with Orihime since the roads were blocked or impassable.

"Don't worry about it," Uryuu assured her. "I'd do anything to help a friend out." He looked at Orihime out of the corner of his eyes.

Kagome glanced back and forth between her cousin and her cousin's friend, registering the sparks between them and grinned in recognition. Oh… so that's why! Okay, she understood now.

The three of them moved the conversation to the couch in the living room, the two girls wearing borrowed nightshirts and wrapped up in fuzzy bathrobes. Kagome was bundled up in a warm comforter, feeling like a happy piece of bread inside a toaster. The sneezing and shivering eventually stopped, making her feel like herself again. She listened with half an ear and roamed her eyes around the decent sized apartment.

It was obviously a bachelors' pad. The walls were stark white and the furniture was masculine, save for the cute little stuffed lion beside her. She picked it up and felt the texture. It was really soft and obviously well-taken cared of. There wasn't any rips or tears and it was clean. She snuggled it closer, sniffing it. The lion even smelled clean. She wondered who the owner of it was. The raven-haired girl began to drift off in her comfortable position.

The two friends were talking to each other, catching up on old times and updating each other of what's been going on in their lives. They spoke in hushed tones as they noticed their companion's eyes droop. Orihime thought her cousin looked so cute, wrapped up in a blanket like that, cuddling a stuffed lion close to her chest for comfort.

The word _edible_, in a non-lecherous way, popped up into Uryuu's mind when Orihime commented on her cousin's appearance, making him wonder why his thoughts were drifting down that lane again. He wasn't attracted to her in a physical way, even if she was as pretty as or probably prettier as her cousin was, but there was that unmistakable pull of something that he couldn't identify.

"Would you like to go to sleep now, Kagome-san?" His voice snapped her out of her light stupor.

"If it isn't much trouble," she mumbled tiredly. Her eyelids were feeling rather heavy.

The three of them stood up, Orihime taking Kagome's elbow, steadying the drowsy girl on her feet. "Inoue-san will be taking the spare room, and you can sleep in Kurosaki's room for tonight."

"Won't he mind?" She didn't want to intrude on anyone's private domain.

"I'm sure he won't mind," Uryuu guessed. What he didn't know won't hurt him, he thought. He wasn't going to be using it anyway so what was the purpose of _him_ giving up his room and sleeping on the couch?

"Kurosaki-kun would probably have given you his room even if he were here, Kagome-chan." Orihime assured her.

"Okay, I'm taking advantage of his room then," she tightened the blanket around herself and tightened her grip on the stuffed lion that she found on the couch earlier. It was just too cute to resist and so soft. She hugged her cousin goodnight and went inside her bedroom for tonight. "Thank you again, Ishida-kun." She closed the door behind her, leaving the two potential lovebirds alone for the night.

The room was sparsely furnished. There was a desk and a chair on one side of the bed. On top of the desk was a computer, several books and school supplies, along with a few framed pictures. She didn't bother turning the light on, going straight for the bed, stuffed lion and all. She shrugged the blanket off and hung it with the robe on the seat, leaving only the nightshirt on.

The bed was large, making her wonder how big and tall the owner of it was. She felt dwarfed by it, lying in the middle like that, so she scooted closer to the right side and snuggled with her new stuffed buddy.

She fell asleep a few minutes later.

Elsewhere in the apartment, the washer buzzed, indicating that its cycle was done. Orihime transferred their clothes to the dryer so they could use it tomorrow and then continued to chat with Uryuu.

Back inside the sleeping girl's room, a look of pure bliss graced the features of the stuffed lion she was cuddling. Kon was in heaven.

- o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o – o – o – o – o -

- o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o – o – o – o – o -

Things were always the same in his world; the solitude, the repeating landscape, the silence. He was used to it from the very beginning and today was just one of those days.

He looked up the sky, contemplating. It hadn't rained for several years now. Not since they forged a deeper understanding of each other. He was glad. He hated the rain. It pelted him from above, drenching his cloak and glasses, drowning him in misery until the heart was stable again. The rain might be something magical for others. It connected the sky to the earth and made it possible for rainbows to appear. It was a life source; it provided you with a way to quench one's thirst. He didn't like it.

He preferred everything calm and peaceful. He liked it when things were normal and in a status quo. The wind blowing at his cloak quietly while silence reigned in the air, this was the life. Some days he would explore around, but most days he just preferred to meditate. Meditating was good. It refreshed his soul. There was nothing like standing on top of a pole while contemplating the meaning of life. He was so in tune with his surroundings.

The clouds continued to pass him by up above of him. It didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon and he was pleased.

This was the life; solitary, at peace and one with everything around him and footsteps coming nearer. He opened one eye. Were those footsteps he was hearing? Sure enough they were, light and steady. The owner seemed to glide with a lot of poise and grace and a striking female in red and white stood before him not long after. If it was possible for someone to give him shock, he would say that he was feeling surprised right about now. If he wasn't so disciplined, he might admit that he almost fell off his perch.

"Hello." She greeted in an act of friendship, offering him a smile.

He didn't smile back but inclined his head in greeting instead. Just when did he start getting visitors? "Hello." Confident that she didn't look or feel menacing, he glided towards her curiously. "I don't believe I have entertained a visitor before." He towered over her.

She continued smiling serenely.

He blinked.

She approached further, standing right in front of him. "I don't think I have gone visiting before either," was all she said.

Silence fell between them but it was companionable. The silence reigned as a quiet understanding passed between them, instincts saying that the other wasn't a threat.

"It's not going to rain today," she said after a while, looking at the sky around them. He looked back at the sky again, nodding in approval at her.

No, it wasn't going to rain today. It hasn't for several years now.

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**Note to self:** LJ can be very addicting. Yosh! Now I'm off to stare at my dancing chibis some more! n.n


	3. Bleanuyasha 3

**- BLEANUYASHA**™** 3 -**

She was being molested in her sleep.

She woke up to the feeling of something pressing against her hard into the mattress. The feeling was suffocating and intrusive, it was almost as if someone decided to make her their own personal pillow.

The next thing that registered into her sleepy brain was that there was a face buried in the crook of her neck. That, coupled with the feeling of a very hard, very solid, very _male_ someone lying on top of her was enough to jar her awake. Someone was in bed with her, his hands, arms and legs effectively trapping her underneath him, making escape impossible. She was strong, but she found out that she couldn't throw the guy's weight off of her.

She didn't mind getting robbed or the house getting ransacked half as much as she would have if they just left her alone. Properties and belongs were replicable, but not broken virtues. Panic welled inside of her and she bucked, trying to throw her assailant off of her prone form to no avail. It was no use, he was at least two or three heads taller than she was, and he was clearly stronger. He was damn heavy, too. She couldn't even see the person's face. The drapes were closed and the room was cast in shadows.

His pillow was sure making a lot of noise.

It squirmed a lot too.

And he wasn't an expert in pillows, but as far as he knew, pillows didn't punch.

Nor did they bite.

He opened his eyes reluctantly when it kicked.

There was an unfamiliar – a very soft, fragrant but still _unfamiliar_ person sleeping on his bed. He bolted upright. Scrambling away quickly than the speed of light, he fell off the bed in a thump, ending up sprawled on the floor with his legs stuck in the air.

"Who the hell are you!"

The girl was now screaming at him, and continued to just _scream_ at him, accusing him of being all kinds of pervert as she threw things at him, aiming for his head. She was making such a loud ruckus, he was certain the neighbors on the fifth floor and their grandchildren would hear her.

"Ssssssh… sssshhh!" He attempted to pacify her, standing up from his undignified position on the floor. "You'll wake the neighbors up!"

"Who are you and what are you doing in my room!" The girl shrieked, fumbling for more stuff to throw at him. Her hands tightened on a soft plushie and that too made its way towards him, but he easily ducked away from it thanks to his fast reflexes.

He stood there, a harsh reprimand dying in his throat, at the sight of a half-dressed girl in the middle of his bed. She was wearing a pajama top that was too big for her, but still too short to cover all of her legs, especially since she was sitting like that. It looked like something Ishida would wear. He has seen more skin, hanging out with Yoruichi-san, but skin was skin and he although he knew that he wasn't supposed to be_ staring_ like he was right now, his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own. He tore them away from her exposed legs when she threw her last pillow at him and started to reach for things to throw at the table.

"Your room? **YOUR** room! Who freaking died and gave you rights to **MY** room?" Angry hands flailed around, his face red, both from embarrassment and anger.

She blinked at him. "Y-your room?" She echoed. "Are you… are you –" She stammered just as the door opened with a bang and bounced off the doorstop violently.

"Kagome-san are you alright?" A disheveled Uryuu came bursting in, his hair sticking out in several places and his glasses were crooked on top of his nose, looking like he was prepared to face a burglar. "I heard you screaming and – and…" He paused, seeing who was in the room inside of her and taking note of their various states of undress.

Ichigo was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, since he was too tired to even put on a pair of pajamas last night, while Kagome was still wearing a borrowed pajama top.

"Oh." The Quincy squeaked as he pushed his eyeglasses up on the bridge of his nose. The miko scrambled to cover her exposed parts by huddling back under the comforter, thankful for the interruption.

"Oh indeed, you idiot!" The orange-haired man walked towards him menacingly. "Are you responsible for this! Just when did you start bringing girls home?" He fumed. If Ishida was starting to bring girls home with him to the apartment, shouldn't he at least put them in _his_ own bedroom? What did he need to get Ichigo involved for?

"I thought you were going to be gone until Sunday…" He yawned into his hand, not the least bit intimidated. It was still raining outside and rain always made him want to sleep in his bed comfortably.

The usurped Shinigami glared hot daggers at his friend; it was a miracle that the bespectacled male didn't burst into flames from where he stood, a level twelve skunk glare directed at him. "So you gave my bed away? You're not the only person who lives here you know."

"But you weren't even here… and where were our guests supposed to sleep?"

"You could have given them the spare room. Chad's not here anyway." His ever present scowl deepened.

"I did."

"Ohayou," a sleepy voice from behind him said; a redhead wrapped in a fluffy robe rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"Inoue?" Ichigo gaped.

"Ohayou, Kurosaki-kun!" She yawned behind her delicate hand. "I hope you don't mind me and my cousin crashing at your place."

He looked from one tousled look to another. "What's going on here?" Were they having some kind of weird orgy going on?

The miko on the bed stealthily reached for her bathrobe and put it on while Uryuu explained the situation to his friend. "Well you see, Kurosaki-kun, Inoue and her cousin were in a bit of a bind last night. The rain," he pointed at the huge amount of water still pelting everything outside, "was half less unforgivable as last night and the streets have been flooded."

Ichigo grunted. He knew that, that was the reason why he was here right now instead of at the clinic. Damn storm. He glanced at the girl who had been sleeping on his bed. Cousin? They didn't even have the same hair color, but who was he to complain, having orange hair compared to his other two siblings?

The cousin was smiling at him apprehensively. As she should be, she kicked him so hard that his leg was still throbbing. She rounded the bed and leaned down to pick up the discarded plushie from the floor.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she said as she dusted off the dandelion head and placed him on the desk, trying to avoid looking below his face. The guy seemed oblivious that he wasn't wearing a lot of clothing. "Ishida-kun was kind enough to provide us with some shelter and I didn't mean to intrude upon anybody."

He scowled and then shrugged indifferently. With the way things looked outside right now, they might have to purchase a boat and row home or stay here for another night. He didn't want to waste energy protesting about something that couldn't be helped.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Both of them trying to remember why the other looked familiar.

"Are you—"

"Do we—"

"This is—"

Ichigo, Kagome and Uryuu said at the same time and then stopped.

"Kurosaki-kun, this is my cousin Kagome," Orihime interjected. "Kagome, this is Ichigo." She turned around, heading for the kitchen. "Is anybody hungry? I'll go make some breakfast."

"Er, nice to meet you… um, Kurosaki-san…" Kagome didn't know how to address him.

"Ichigo," he corrected her crudely, stomped over to his closet and pulled out a t-shirt to wear. He put it on quickly and turned to her. "Just call me Ichigo." Heck, she slept in his bed already, so why bother with an honorific?

"I think I'll go see what Inoue-san is preparing," Uryuu said, then turned and headed for the kitchen, leaving the miko and Shinigami alone together.

Pitter patter, pitter patter.

The rain continued to pound everything outside, an occasional strong wind whistling past them. Kagome wondered if her cousin was still into weird food combinations. She turned to look at her companion who was still half-dressed. Didn't he know that pants had been invented a long time ago? It wasn't the first time that she's seen a half-naked man. She's seen at least two fully naked men, in fact, when Jaken tried to steal the Tessaiga from Inuyasha and she happened upon Miroku and him on the spiked hot springs. She had no reason whatsoever to be embarrassed just because she slept in a strange man's bed, possibly all night, with him. She was a grown woman.

She will be turning twenty-one in several months. She was old enough to even live by her own, if only she chose to. Not that she didn't want to or couldn't, but her mom had persuaded her to stay at the shrine since she spent so much time away from them in her teen years. Her beloved mom just wanted to coddle her only daughter just a bit longer until she found a man she wanted to marry and moved out of the shrine permanently. Or at least that's what she said.

Highly unlikely to happen, in Kagome's opinion. After spending so much time in the company of an extraordinary monk, a superb hanyou and several demon princes, a girl's standard tended to get set pretty high. Somehow, ordinary people in her era looked so… boring… compared to what she was used to. If Hojo had seemed so unexciting before, he was a bigger snorefest than ever now.

She had seen it all, been there, done that and even have the scars for souvenirs. She was supposed to be jaded, damn it. So why did she feel like she was blushing like a schoolgirl right now?

"Anou… I'm sorry about earlier. I'm just not used to waking up with a guy," she explained, trying to apologize for calling him names and trying to maim his manhood earlier. Even in the Feudal Era, she never slept with anyone but Shippou and Kirara in her sleeping bag. Waking up thinking you were being molested was new to her. She also didn't want to make a bad impression with her cousin's friends. It was bad enough that they were imposing themselves on these poor, unfortunate souls.

"I didn't mean to call you a pervert," she added, and immediately regretted her words when his scowl deepened. The guy had been scowling all this time, what was wrong with him? She wished she saw his face earlier, instead of having it pressed against the side of her neck like it was. Did he scowl in his sleep as well? He looked like he had been born with a permanent frown on his face. If he thought that she was going to be intimidated by that, he was dead wrong. He should meet Sesshoumaru to know what a real bone-chilling stare looked like. His intimidation tactics were extremely mild compared to that of her demon friend. Her chin jutted just a little bit higher in defiance at that thought.

He continued to scowl at her. Him, a pervert? Why, he was a perfect gentleman! His right brow twitched dangerously, how dare this girl… if she wasn't so… "You did?" he replied in a mild tone, " I didn't notice." Because I was too busy trying to keep my head on my shoulders, you crazy woman! "Don't worry about it," he assured her as one broad shoulder shrugged indifferently.

Twitch, twitch.

Kagome stared at the twitching brow in fascination. They looked more fascinating than Inuyasha's puppy ears and before she acted on her urge to leap upon him and try to smooth that furrowed brow, she bowed low. "Thank you for lending us shelter, again. I think I'll go see what Orihime is doing and see if I could help out." she said and then hastily made her exit.

The smells coming from the kitchen were curious. The exhaust fan over the stove was working full time as her cousin slaved away over it, cooking something. Uryuu stood beside her, wearing a bemused expression on his pasty face. Kagome approached carefully, wondering what made him look like that.

"Can you even… I mean…" Uryuu seemed at a loss for words. "Are you even supposed to _fry_ peanut butter…?" He asked to no one in particular.

Kagome peered over Inoue's shoulder to see that her cousin was indeed frying some goo. Or peanut butter, if she took Uryuu's word for it. He hovered over the pan, looking like he was afraid of the _thing_ Orihime was concocting in it. She didn't blame him; it looked like some kind of monster blob that came to life to eat them all, direct from the sewage.

"It's my very own recipe!" The redhead shared enthusiastically, picking up an egg from the counter and adding it her invention. "Let me cook for all of us in exchange for your hospitality, Ishida-kun. You can go sit down at the table and I'll have breakfast ready in a minute, okay?" She poked the glop with her trusty spatula, stirring all her original ingredients together thoroughly.

Uryuu was looking a little green around the gills as he sat down on one of the chairs.

The miko decided not to laugh at his expense, but she did giggle. "I see you still love to put unusual food combinations together. Isn't peanut butter supposed to go with jelly?"

"It goes good with eggs, too."

She wasn't the only one looking at her cousin skeptically. "Um, okay then…"

Despite having a hanyou who preferred to eat instant ramen over good home-cooked meals for a bestfriend for several years, she was actually a really decent cook. The rest of their group absolutely loved her cooking, and even considered it exotic sometimes, and it was all thanks to her mother's culinary skills. One couldn't help but learn how to cook good when you had a great sensei after all.

No one protested as the miko helped prepare breakfast as well. Omelets were her specialty; she cooked it for all types of occasions. It also didn't require a genius to fry some bacon and cook some rice. A few minutes later, the cousins had a decent breakfast spread out on the table.

Ichigo cautiously poked at it. It looked edible enough, and even Ishida was eating it. He didn't look like he was going to keel over from food poisoning any second now, but then one could never tell until the last second now, could they? Inoue was happily eating her culinary masterpiece alone, not minding in the least bit that the others refused to even look at it for so long, since even looking at it made them a tad bit nauseous. He hadn't planned on eating anything the cousins cooked, being familiar with his high school friend's history of coupling bean paste with cake, but they had earlier backed him into a corner of choosing between the toxic goo and the omelet.

He chose the omelet.

The bacon looked good, too. Thankfully, the rice looked safe as well.

He piled a decent amount of it unto his plate, enough to keep his companions satisfied and hopefully enough to appease the raven-haired girl who seemed critical of his treatment of the dish. What was_ her_ problem? He sipped his tea unhurriedly and watched as Ishida devoured most of the food. After several minutes of his friend not collapsing into food poisoning, he succumbed and took a bite.

It was delicious. His taste buds were singing hallelujah and he quickly pitched another forkful into his mouth. Who knew Inoue's cousin was such a good cook? He shot Ishida a glare before picking up the pace. The guy had been stuffing his face with it longer than he has, but he was still eating.

"This is really good, Kagome-san!" Ishida praised, sucking up to the cook. Kagome beamed at him and offered him another helping, which effectively reduced Ichigo's share. "Don't you think so, Kurosaki?"

Ichigo grunted, trying to be as indifferent as possible. He was very nonchalant as he reached for the more and piled them all into his plate before Mr. Gluttony ate it all.

"Kagome-chan has always been a good cook," Orihime piped up proudly. She was now sipping her tea, her weird glob fully consumed.

After breakfast was done, the table was cleared and the dishes were washed, the group settled around the television set in the living room, keeping watch of the weather forecast. When Kagome looked out of the window, almost sadly at the rain, Orihime tried to cheer her up by pointing out the bright side of it was that classes were cancelled. Kagome laughed at this and definitely agreed, but it was obvious, with the way that she kept glancing outside, that she was still worried about something.

There was that uncertain feeling again. Like someone or something was drawing nearer, aiming for her.

"Something wrong, Kagome-san?" Uryuu inquired.

Kagome shook her head, "No, nothing's wrong." She smiled in reassurance. The three friends were staring at her, two out of concern and the other was wearing his usual frown. She noticed the familiar yellow plushie on the couch and picked it up, cuddling it close. In the years she spent carrying Shippou, Kirara, or both in her arms, she felt a sense of absence if she her arms were empty of something soft and cuddly. A funny look replaced the frowning one's expression for a brief second and his mouth opened a little, as if getting ready to say something, before he turned away and resumed watching the television.

They would comment once in a while at the programs or talk in between commercials. Uryuu's banter with Ichigo reminded her of her own friends long gone, in a way. Inuyasha didn't frown as much as Orihime's orange-haired friend did, but they looked like they had the same rough exterior to her. Maybe if he stopped frowning her way every so often, she'd actually learn to like the guy.

"Kurosaki, do you feel that?"

"Not now Ishida," Ichigo grumbled before he added "It's your turn this time." It was his day off. It was self-appointed, but he didn't care if anybody gave a damn. He was tired and overworked. He wasn't even supposed to be here right now. He was supposed to be at home, pummeling his dad or something along those lines. And it was still raining for crying out loud. He didn't have a canoe and he didn't feel like taking a swim today either.

"But it's your job." The Quincy reminded and swore that he could hear teeth gritting hard against each other. Neither refused to budge from their positions; neither willing to brave the weather.

Kagome listened with half an ear to their conversation. The weird aura was getting stronger by the second and all her senses were on alert. She chewed on her lip nervously, debating between seeking it out or waiting for it and hope that it wasn't her it was looking for. There were no more demons in this era, were there? Oh wait, the weird-looking snake-guy… gotcha.

She gave a long mental sigh. If she just waited here, surely it won't come after her, right? It was a long shot, if it was a youkai after her, or the jewel, she might as well confront it head on. Hiding never had been her forte. But… she looked hesitantly at her cousin. If she went outside, Orihime and her friends would be curious for sure. Not to mention that her cousin would probably go with her, putting herself in danger.

Kagome stood up and excused herself, heading towards the bathroom just as the argument brewed between the two males. Ichigo was saying something about a day off and Uryuu was scoffing at him, telling him that he had no time to take a day off. The miko was shutting the door just as Ichigo was asking Uryuu who died and made him the boss. She didn't realize that she was still clutching the plushie, so she set him down gently on top of the sink and cautiously opened the window.

Rain battered at the opened window but the miko ignored it. She figured she was going to get a little wet from this, but short of going outside with Orihime trailing after her, she had no other option. She let her miko senses flare as she reached out and tried to locate where the negative aura was coming from. Luck was on her side because she felt its aura strike back against hers with a resounding hiss, protesting.

When she started out on her journey when she was fifteen, she couldn't even shoot an arrow in a straight line, much less release one that would track an enemy regardless of the corners it had to cut. Things were different now. She didn't need to worry about that, however, since her powers seemed to have sent the beast into a frenzy. It sped towards her window in an alarming rate. Not wishing to have her hosts' bathroom decimated, she quickly put up a barrier, causing the youkai to bounce against it hard. It pulled away with half of its mask purified from the impact. It eerily looked similar to the one she encountered the other day, but this time it had wings that enabled it to fly.

"Human, the jewel, you have it," it told her. "Give it to me," it demanded, "and I'll make your death quick and painless." Kagome rolled her eyes, exasperated. If she had a dollar for every time someone told her that, she'd be filthy rich by now. The demon tried to break into her shield again, the impact not even making her flinch one bit. He was big, she gave him that, but their power levels were too far to compare. She almost pitied him, really. "Hand it over or watch your city drown," it growled at her.

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you're the one responsible for this unnatural rain?" It was a good thing that people were inside their homes, seeking shelter from the rain, or else there would be dozens of bystanders gawking at the picture a flying monstrosity presented right now.

It merely cackled at her. "Such power is beyond comprehension for the likes of you, little girl." It sneered at her. Kagome bristled. So she was inconvenienced today because of this thing? "But if you must know, yes pathetic little human, I'm the one responsible for this magnificent rain. Isn't it just wonderful?" The youkai continued to taunt her as it began a monologue.

What it was with bad guys and their monologues she'll never know. Deciding to end it as soon as she could, her shield went down as she prepared for a counter strike. She didn't want her cousin to wonder what was taking her so long. The demon cackled in glee as she notched her spirit arrow. "Foolish girl, give me the jewel!" It said just as the miko released her concentrated holy energy, hitting the center of his mask with her perfect aim, causing him to go up in pretty sparkles.

"They really should stop underestimating me," she muttered and shut the window close. Her clothes were partially wet, but it was nothing to be concerned about. "Is it because I'm a girl?" She continued to ask to no one in particular. Reaching for the towel on the rack, she patted herself as dry as she possibly could, so as not to make anyone worry or suspicious, all the while muttering to herself. The one-sided banter was normal to her. It wasn't like the stuffed bear on the sink could answer her anyway. The girl that looked back at her in the mirror didn't have an answer for her questions either.

Having your enemies think you were weak was a definite advantage, but it gets old in time. Naraku had learned it the hard way, underestimating her the first time. Lucky for him, (which meant that it had been unlucky for their ragtag group), he learned quickly and stayed clear of her as much as possible. He was such a fast learner. But then if one's body almost disintegrated just from a single arrow, one had to be an utter moron to continue any kind of unprepared confrontation.

Thus explaining all the puppets and detachments sent after them. Not to mention the group of undead warriors and anybody who was prone to the evil hanyou's promises of grandeur and power.

Still, it irked her that new enemies would assume she was weak just by looking at her. What did she have to do to earn respect around here? How many times did she have to save the world before she counted as a decent enough opponent and not just some frail little schoolgirl?

Come to think about it, inner Kagome paused, why was there suddenly an influx of demons around here lately? Despite her irritation at being underestimated time and time again, she wasn't exactly looking forward to proving just how strong she was and take on whoever challenged her. Wasn't she retired or something?

Her days of saving the world were over. The jewel was whole once again, back in her body safe from evil clutches of conniving half-demons. She had fulfilled her duty. The well was closed and her journey was over now, wasn't it? She blew the bangs out of her face in exasperation.

Remembering to pick up the plushie from the sink, she opened the bathroom door and came face to face with three curious faces.

"Um, are you alright, Kagome-chan?" Orihime asked her.

Kagome nodded at her cousin. Why wouldn't she be alright? It only seems like there were more demons in this era than she credited before, and they seemed like they were after the jewel again. Why wouldn't she be alright? Just because **she** was the jewel now wasn't a cause for concern at all. No, not at all. "I'm alright," she answered with fake cheer. Why were they looking at her like that?

Ichigo brushed past her and into the bathroom, looking around for something.

Kagome went to stand beside her cousin, curious.

Uryuu joined Ichigo in the bathroom and went straight for the window, looking outside. He didn't fail to notice that there was a small puddle of water on the floor next to the window, as if it was recently opened. The rain finally stopped pouring down like cats and dogs barely a minute ago, right after they felt the Hollow energy spike. They all felt it, making Inoue concerned for her cousin's safety.

Since said cousin was still inside the bathroom, they had to wait for her, but they grew concerned. What was odd was that it suddenly vanished right before the rain stopped, almost as if there had been a sending. Another Shinigami perhaps?

The confused miko wanted to ask if they were looking for something and if perhaps she could be of help, but hesitated to offer when Ichigo's frown deepened as he walked back towards her. "Kon, did you see something? If you did, tell us now or I'm going to hand you over to Yuzu and let her have her way with you." He threatened. Kagome was wondering why he was looking at her chest area.

"It was her," Kon replied several seconds later, ratting out what happened in fear of getting handed over to Ichigo's demon sister. He still had chilling nightmares from the time when she dressed him up as a pretty fairy princess.

Kagome almost dropped the stuffed animal that she was holding when it talked. "You can speak?" She asked incredulously as she held it within eye-level.

Ichigo was immediately suspicious of the girl. She didn't even flinch when the stuffed toy in her arms spoke. There was more than simply what meets the eye with this so-called cousin of Inoue. If she really was her cousin. For all he knew, she could have been some imposter. He was immediately on guard. "Just who are you and what is your purpose?"

Kagome bristled at his tone. "What do you mean who am I and what my purpose is? Are you nuts!"

"Are you someone else, pretending to be Inoue's cousin? How do we know you really are cousins?" He shot back at her. Both had extremely volatile tempers, and they flared against each other, just as their kis did, much to the surprise of Orihime and Uryuu. Both friends were used to Ichigo's spirit energy by now but they didn't expect someone not from Soul Society to probably be on equal grounds with him.

Uryuu walked back to them, finding nothing suspicious at all. "Tell us what happened, Kon." He requested gently, trying to pacify both parties.

"Well, you see," Kon began reluctantly, not wanting to give up his position from the girl's arms, but at the same time afraid of Ichigo's threat, "she went into the bathroom and opened the window, looking out. Then this Hollow came and she defeated it," he said, telling them an extremely watered down version of the event. He didn't mention how his polyester fur had stood on end when a small amount of the girl's aura flared to defeat the monster, nor did he mention that she defeated the thing without much effort at all. Kagome wondered what the heck a Hollow was.

The sudden rise in spiritual energy was overwhelming. "I see. And tell me, just how did she manage to do this?"

"It looked like Ishida's arrow, but not quite." He wasn't sure about it but if it wasn't for the fact that it looked like a bow and arrow, he'd say that it was a Soul Slayer. But it wasn't. Soul Slayers were swords, not a bow.

"Is that all?" Ichigo's right brow was twitching. Why did he feel like the little piece of shit was hiding something from him?

"Yes that's all. What else did you want me to say?" The Modified Soul scoffed indignantly.

Ichigo reached over and plucked him from Kagome's arms, shaking him forcefully. Kagome gasped at the rough treatment, feeling like it was Shippou being bullied by a temperamental hanyou all over again.

"Stop it, you're hurting him!" She snatched the distressed plushie out of Ichigo's hands and cuddled him protectively. She had a strong urge to sit the guy. If only she had some prayer beads… "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" She glared at him for more emphasis.

Okay that was it. Cousin or no cousin, no one interrupted him when he was pummeling Kon. "Excuse me but I don't see any worthy opponents around here," he stared angrily back, towering over her.

Kagome was more than two heads shorter than he was, but she wasn't going to let such a trivial matter like height intimidate her.

Orihime and Uryuu watched fixatedly at the display of tempers. They didn't think it was possible, but there was actually someone out there with a temper to match their friend's. Orihime didn't think it was possible for her cousin to be such person; her sweet, sickly cousin. This was the first massive display of temper her cousin displayed that she was privy to so far. The two of them spent enough time together to get close and get to know each other's characters, but Kagome had never displayed this type of volatility before. Not even when her friends talked about that two-timing boyfriend of hers did she even remotely lose her temper. She was such a sweet girl.

The sparks were literally flying between the two. None of the spectators have seen anything like it before. Ichigo's spirit energy was reacting to his temper, flaring out wildly. They have seen what Ichigo was capable of doing before, so they weren't really that surprised.

What was surprising was that Kagome's aura was flaring as well, almost as if in response to his. And while Ichigo's looked black, Kagome's ki was a mixture of pink and blue.

"I've never seen spirit energy like that before," Uryuu observed out loud. It was usually just one color, from his experience.

"What do you mean spirit energy like that?" The irritated Shinigami asked distractedly. Why wasn't this slip of a girl cowering before his angry glare? In high school, he didn't even have to glare at someone to intimidate them, his constant frown and rough demeanor sent normal people scurrying away from him within seconds. If she wasn't clutching Kon to her like a mother protecting its young or if she wasn't glaring back at him like that, he would probably almost admit to finding her cute. Her blue eyes were fired up with anger, directed at him. Why the heck was she angry at him for?

"Ara, ara. Seems like I'm late for the party," a voice said, breaking off the staring contest between the two combatants. Mysterious smiling eyes were half-hidden beneath a gaudy striped hat, but Kagome's attention was diverted to the cane and clogs that the man was sporting. "It was the rain, you see," the newcomer explained for his audience's benefit. He was looking straight at the miko though; undivided attention and all. "Thanks for fixing that, by the way Kagome-san." He tipped his hat towards the confused girl. Jumping off of the window ledge and into the apartment, he surveyed the humble abode.

The occupants were at a loss; all of them wondering what this man was doing, here and now. Kagome was wondering that plus the fact that she didn't know who this man was. She couldn't feel any menacing intent from him, but she didn't let her guard down. How did he know her name?

"What the hell are you doing here, old man?" Ichigo demanded rudely.

"How do you know my name?" Kagome asked at the same time.

Urahara Kisuke made himself at home, plopping on the couch and making himself comfortable. "Oh I know **_all_** about you, Kagome-san." He smiled knowingly.

- o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o - o – o – o – o – o – o – o -

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There she was again. Long, flowing hair swaying with the wind as it blew by quietly.

He didn't bother to question her company today. He wasn't going to balk if she wanted to look at the sky with him. He had things figured out by now, and he didn't have any protests against it.

Besides, if things were to go smoothly, he should expect more of these silent cloud-watching activities more often.

She looked sideways at him thoughtfully for several moments. He didn't seem to mind. He had a definite sense of security around him. Enemy or foe alike, she doubted if he would flinch from their attention either way. They were so alike in that sense, she guessed. Compared to her, he looked very – for a lack of better word – modern.

She insisted on wearing the traditional red and white colors, not because she had no other choice, but because they were familiar. She was updated with the current fashions and such, being able to access her host's memories and knowledge, but she chose to keep her appearance the same.

"Your ward has a temper on her," he observed.

"So does yours," she replied.

"What a coincidence," he said, his eyes telling her that he really didn't believe in coincidences.

There are no coincidences in this world, after all. There is only inevitability.

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**A/N: **I have ALWAYS loved that quote from Touya of Card Captor Sakura.

If you don't have an open mind for crossover fics, I suggest you not read this fanfic. In the crossover world, there are just some things that you need to accept – like why the hell Aerith is still alive in Kingdom Hearts when Sephiroth already killed her. If your brain is small and if it lacks the brain cells to comprehend crossover fics, do me a favor and don't review because I just end up wasting time typing this part up of the author's note.

I love reading reviews, they inspire me. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate it. At the same time, reviewers who have nothing better to do but criticize another's work raise my right brow. No, I have never liked negative/sarcastic/snarky reviews. Especially if the reviewer doesn't even have the decency to log in before leaving it. rolls eyes Isn't it just common sense to NOT read a fanfic that you think you wouldn't like? Why would anyone want to waste time and energy on something they think they wouldn't like in the first place?

Anyway, on a lighter note, I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. I can only type on my computer now, and I've had my priorities elsewhere. The dancing chibis can be found on my journal. _Sweats. _I've been addicted to Eljay and have spent 99 of my free time doing icons on it. Gomen! Hehe.. Want to find out what happens next? Well… (rides off to safety on top of her trusty Cactuar) Leave a review/suggestion/non-snarky comment that's not weak and I'll tell you. Haha! XP

Belated happy Christmas, Jye-sama. (grin)

**DISCLAIMER for every chapter:** Me no own so you no sue.


	4. Bleanuyasha 4

**- Bleanuyasha 4 -**

"You gotta be shitting me," Ichigo said incredulously. "You really expect us to buy into this?" He looked from Urahara's face to that of Kagome's. Both were sitting across of where he was, with Orihime hovering beside her cousin and Ishida hovering beside Orihime. Kagome was still holding on to Kon, much to the delight of the Mod Soul. She looked like she found comfort in having him close to her chest like that. It irritated the orange-haired Shinigami because it kept the little brat out of the reach of his fists of fury. He briefly considered warning her about the plushie's preference towards perversion, but he vindictively kept quiet.

They had just been treated to what the old man claims to be as an accounting of Kagome's so-called adventures with an ancient dry well. "What a bunch of bull," he added when the old man took a breather from talking. Even he wasn't so gullible as to believe in everything the old man fed him. He had already been cleverly manipulated once. It was enough for him to learn his lesson.

A time-traveling miko in the quest to complete a jewel that could grant any wish? What did they take him for? Did they think he was some kind of stupid?

He looked from Inoue's face to Ishida's questioningly. "Don't tell me you actually believe this crap?" He ignored Kagome's heated glare as he took in Orihime's apologetic one and Ishida's impassive stare. He expected Inoue to side with her cousin. Blood was thicker than water and all that jazz… but Ishida? Wasn't he supposed to be the logical one? Wasn't he supposed to be the one with the extensive knowledge and all that crap?

Uryuu cleared his throat and pushed his glasses higher on top of his nose. "Well, Kurosaki… you see… I've heard of the legend about mikos from my grandfather before," he explained. His grandfather had been the last of the greatest of all Quincies. He could only hope to be as great a man as his beloved grandfather was, but he would be happy even if he only lived to be one tenth of the man he had been.

His beloved grandfather told him the legend of a great line of holy warriors these mikos were. Telling him that while Quincy powers totally obliterated Hollows, miko powers purified them, which was equivalent to a holy sending. Their powers also worked on a wide variety of things, but in the old days, they were focused mainly on protecting human beings from the threat of demons.

Grandfather told him that he has never met any of these so-called mikos, and the last known one died more than five hundred years ago. There was no evidence to this day that they still existed. To see one now was like seeing a mythical creature… like a unicorn or something along those lines.

Uryuu, at that time, chalked it up under the fairytales and life lessons that his grandfather loved telling him, and never gave it a second thought up until now.

If what Urahara Kisuke told them was true, Kagome was supposed to have been, still is, and what seems to be the only guardian of a powerful jewel named the Shikon no Tama. Said jewel was presumed to be able to grant any wish and was supposedly created from the fusing of a miko's soul with several demons due to a great battle that happened thousands of years ago. Kagome was firmly believed to be the only person alive to have the power to contain such jewel, and to purify it. She was the only person who could keep it untainted and safe from evil influences.

According to Urahara, she was also the last of a dying race. Their line had extreme spiritual potential in it, thus explaining Kagome and Orihime's unique abilities. It didn't mean however, that there would be a guaranteed, true-blooded miko in their family. He explained that when the last guardian died, the jewel disappeared with it. The new era where humans became smarter and eventually advanced to be the dominant species was also ushered in, with the remaining youkai either dying or bred out. Whatever was left of that race was now living in harmony with the human population. Or most of them at least.

Some lived like Hollows, in between dimensions, or crossing in between the living world and Soul Society. The few who weren't consumed with thirst for power or bloodlust were the first to divulge their knowledge (reluctantly or otherwise) of demon magic, which was now incorporated into Soul Society's Shinigami training.

He glared at Ishida for selling out and said "I still don't buy it," refusing to budge.

Even the subject of the Hougyoku, the Crumbling Treasure, was rehashed. The Hougyoku was a small jewel-like thing that the former Shinigami Captain had invented. It allowed Shinigamis to go beyond their limits and obtain Hollow-like powers. His researched failed to give him a way to destroy it, so he sealed it away instead, hiding it from others who wanted it to obtain power.

Urahara continued to explain that Kagome had been his prime research example for hiding the Hougyoku. It seemed like he came across the legend during his years as the lead specialist for the Research and Development Section of Soul Society and devoted a lot of time studying it. Souls were hard to track in the afterlife, having eighty different levels outside of the Court of Pure Souls, but he managed to observe how the Shikon slowly fused completely with its host when he had the opportunity to meet one of Kagome's past reincarnations. It seems like when Kikyou made the decision to burn her body together with the jewel, the jewel attached itself to its guardian's soul and slowly began to merge with it. He was exiled a little while after that, but the meeting was burned permanently into his memories, he reminisced.

Kagome wondered if it was Kikyou he met and asked. He answered no, it wasn't someone named Kikyou but it was a sweet girl named Miyako. The name didn't ring any bells for Kagome and she felt a tinge of guilt at her relief for it not being Kikyou. Even if she had long ago accepted her past reincarnation, albeit regarding her relationship with Inuyasha or the fact that people tended to look at Kikyou as the better miko, she just didn't want to live under the priestess' shadow again.

Ichigo merely rolled his eyes at the drama. He couldn't see what was so special about the jewel at all. From his experience, things like that only caused problems. Take Rukia, for example. She changed his life when she gave him the opportunity to awaken his Shinigami powers, but it also led to several unfortunate events that almost cost her and the lot of them their lives. And whose fault was it? He glared at old man Urahara.

The exiled ex-Captain continued with his explanation, telling Kagome how he had been excited after he found out about Kagome's birth. It was the first time, he said, that the jewel manifested itself inside its guardian's body like that. During that time, he was already residing in the living world and was delighted to observe what seemed to be the final stage of the fusion.

Kagome felt uneasy thinking about how he was able to monitor her without her or Inuyasha's knowledge. One would think that the inuhanyou's keen sense of smell would have detected any suspicious characters lurking around the shrine.

Urahara countered that she fell through the well just as he was forced to shift his priorities elsewhere. The miko didn't have long to wait before she was enlightened to what the circumstances of his forced inattentiveness were.

At this point of his explanation, she didn't fail to observe that Ichigo had gone from looking disbelieving to smug.

Kagome couldn't help but wonder how he could experience all those things and not believe that demons and a magic well existed, the jerk. He's not even remotely cute at all, inner Kagome raged and she silently agreed. That constant crinkle on his forehead was definitely a turn-off.

Definitely, inner Kagome agreed.

"So when people die, their souls wait in this world until they get sent to this 'Soul Society' by so-called 'Death Gods'? Like some sort of afterlife?" She wanted to clarify. Somehow, she presumed that Pied-piper-like youkai was the only one responsible for helping dead spirits move on. _I guess I was wrong._ At Urahara's nod she continued "And when they die there, they get sent back in the living world? Like being reincarnated?" Urahara nodded at her again, seemingly pleased by her conclusions.

Kagome's mind reeled with the possibilities of this implication. Would her friends be living in this Soul Society right now or were they already reborn back into the living world? What about her non-human friends? What happened to Shippou, Sesshoumaru and Kouga? And what of Inuyasha? He was a hanyou. Did half-demons get reborn as a demon or a human?

So many questions plagued her, but one took precedence over everything else. "Why are you telling me all of this?" She asked with a sinking feeling. She existed without knowing this intricate society before. She was perfectly happy unaware of it. Why did they have to spoil it for her?

Orihime placed a hand on her cousin's shoulders, as if sensing her distress. A feeling of great trepidation was starting to consume her. Wasn't it enough that they risked their lives to protect Soul Society and even lent a hand in defeating Hollows that wandered over to the living world? Her cousin didn't need to be dragged into this whole mess. She was surprised to learn that Kagome had kept a large chunk of her life from her, but she did it too, so she didn't exactly have the right to point any fingers here.

Urahara cleared his throat. "Surely you noticed the increase in Hollow activities as of late?" He waited until Ichigo and Uryuu nodded in confirmation. "They were attracted here by a lure."

"What?" Uryuu raised his hands defensively as his friends looked at him. "I didn't do anything, I swear!" He defended himself. "At least, not this time around…" He added sheepishly, looking at his friends, eyes wide. Huge beads of sweat were starting to appear on his forehead despite the cool temperature. He wished they would stop looking at him like that, like they were all blaming him for this mess.

Ichigo was about to start on him but Urahara waved the Quincy's excuse off. "Whoever said that **you** were the one responsible for this?" He chuckled humorlessly and turned to the miko.

Kagome's eyes bugged out of her head indignantly. "Wait, what are you implying? Wh-why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, her voice raising an octave. "Are you saying that this is **my **fault? Are you crazy? Are you insane?" She turned to her cousin, eyes pleading for help. She couldn't even tell the difference between a demon and this so-called 'Hollow' of theirs, so why was it her fault all of a sudden?

Orihime squeezed her shoulder again, trying to comfort her. "I'm sure that that's not what he's implying, Kagome-chan," she said, looking questioningly at the exiled ex-Captain. "Isn't that right, Urahara-san?"

The man in the striped hat grinned at them, like a cat. "But it **is**, technically, her fault."

Kagome clenched her fists in an effort to calm her raging temper, earning a strangled squeak from Kon. Counting to ten and breathing deeply, she managed to not punt anybody into the nearby wall with her fists of doom. She almost got a hold on her temper until Ichigo snorted.

"Figures. I should've known better," he said. He hadn't known the chick for more than half a day but he already knew she was trouble. He would never fall for the trick that those doe-like eyes were trying to pull on him. It reminded him too much of that old movie Bambi, and he never liked Bambi anyway. For a children's movie, he felt that it had been filled with too much drama and angst. He couldn't prevent Yuzu from randomly bursting into tears upon remembering the death of the doe's mother even weeks after they saw the blasted thing. And he was still suspicious of that little Thumper. He could tell that the bunny was a pervert from first glance. The name was a pretty huge giveaway… just remove the T and… "I knew you were evil at first glance," he declared, signing his own death warrant.

This time, he didn't have time to duck as she punched him with the fist still holding Kon. The spectators comically blinked in unison, surprised at the speed the girl had. The plushie-filled fist connected with Ichigo's jaw and his head snapped to the side from the impact.

"I am NOT evil!" Kagome fumed, chest heaving. How dare he call her evil! She helped save the world SEVERAL times and didn't even think about world domination or the like, despite having possession of the Shikon.

"Why you little…" Ichigo recovered, embarrassed that a girl managed to catch him off-guard. He took a precautionary step back as his fingers itching to wrap around that smooth slender neck of hers. It seemed like someone had to teach Inoue's cousin what the meaning of respecting your betters was. How dare she punch him! Lucky for her, he wasn't into picking on females. A dozen things to say to her flashed on his mind all at once as he straightened up. "You are SO uncute!" He bellowed into her face.

Kagome's eyes widened at the insult. "You're one to talk yourself, Mr. Frowny Pants!"

The both of them forgot that they had an audience, glaring at each other, irritated.

"At least I make frowning look good. What about you, even if you smile until your face breaks, you're **still **uncute!"

"Says who, genius?" Kagome pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You?" She snorted.

"Are you in league with the Hollows?" Ichigo asked, bravely stepping into her punch-radius, trying once again to stare her down. Did she not notice the great difference in their height?

Apparently not, because the miko kept glaring back right at him, ignoring the crick in her neck. Damn he was tall. "Until a few minutes ago, I didn't even know what a Hollow is. For all I know, you could be in league with Naraku! Or worse, you're probably one of those power-hungry demons who's after the jewel!" She took a step back from him, standing in front of Orihime, as if to protect her. Suspicious eyes darted from one male to the other. "I can't feel any jyaki from any of you, except for a weird aura coming from you," she pointed at Ichigo, "but you take one step closer and I won't hesitate to purify you."

Uryuu swallowed the lump in his throat; the look she gave him chilled him to the bone. He couldn't help but wonder where the seemingly sweet girl he offered shelter to last night went. He didn't fear any kind of purification she would unleash on him, but he didn't have a doubt in his mind that she could still probably kick his ass if she really wanted to.

"Kagome-chan," Orihime interrupted just as Urahara burst out laughing on the couch, "I don't think any of them are, um, youkai. I've known Kurosaki-kun and Ishida-kun for a long time and we've been through a lot together. I can assure you that they're not evil." She gulped. "And I'm sure that Kurosaki-kun didn't really mean it when he accused you of being evil." Her nervous smile almost faltered.

When Urahara's mirth subsided, he wiped the tears from his eyes and spoke again. "I guess this is my fault," he chuckled again. "Would you children sit back down please? And no fighting this time." He waited until they were all seated. "You know that lure with the incident years ago with the Menos Grande?" He asked, referring to the incident where a Hollow the size of an office building came to town. The former schoolmates nodded, recalling how their odd group formed informally that day. "I'm not talking about **_that_** kind of lure. I'm talking about something like a beacon, attracting foe and friend alike to its location."

Kagome sank further into the sofa; she could almost guess what he was going to say next.

"It's the Shikon no Tama," Urahara Kisuke said, confirming the miko's suspicions. "Somehow, Kagome-san, the jewel has been resonating more powerful than usual."

"Do you have any idea why that might be, Urahara-san?" Uryuu inquired.

"How old are you?" Urahara asked Kagome.

"Twenty," she replied. "I'll be twenty-one this year," she thought to add.

"That's it then," Kisuke said authoritatively, and the others leaned forward to know what he was so sure about. "As humans call it, you're 'coming of age'," he explained. "Your merger with the jewel has given you its powers and other benefits, but it seemed to have come with a contract filled with fine prints."

Kagome was almost afraid to ask. "Like…?"

"Well I'm guessing that you're probably going to continue leaking immense power, no matter how expert your control is when it comes to masking your presence, until you turn twenty-one. With this comes the danger of having more and more powerful beings come after you. I frankly don't know how they hope to extract the jewel from you," he looked thoughtfully at her side for a moment, making Kagome feel uncomfortable. He was looking at where the jewel resided and it was unnerving how much this man knew about her. "The Shikon no Tama was torn from your side, was it not?"

Kagome nodded.

"When you were born, the jewel was kept in your heart."

The miko frowned in protest. "But when Mistress Centipede pulled me down that well, she tore the jewel from my side."

"Yes, but I don't know if you could tell for yourself, but the jewel is now back in your heart," he reiterated, pointing to her left chest. That, of course, caused the others to stare at her breast area, and Kagome felt herself blush at so many people staring at her like that.

She brought Kon to shield herself from the gazes, even though it probably wasn't much help.

"Is it that light right there," Uryuu asked, pointing at her breast, "with the pink aura?"

Ichigo was frowning at the same spot.

"Yes, can you see how it's different from her natural aura?"

Orihime nodded her assent, continuing to admire her cousin's colorful spiritual energy. "I noticed that earlier," she remarked, smiling happily, "it's so pretty, Kagome-chan!"

Kagome smiled, not minding her cousin's close scrutiny, but she felt somewhat disturbed by the orange-haired frown factory's intense gaze. She was starting to feel like a piece of meat in an auction.

The simple remark triggered the Shinigami's memory. "I know you now!" He jabbed a finger at Kagome's direction. "We have the same class and you're that weird girl with the spirit threads!"

"I am NOT weird, YOU are!"

"I know you are but what am I?" Ichigo snapped back. He couldn't figure out why he liked to bait this woman. The way her eyes flashed in anger and her chest heaved in contained fury was cute. Wait, did he say cute? He meant to say uncute. Yes, that's right… she is **SO** uncute. She was the most uncutest of all the uncute people in the whole history of uncutedom.

Uryuu bobbed his head up and down, earning a glare from the miko. "She does have two colors for her spirit threads," he agreed. "Why is that?" He asked what seemed to be the expert on the miko at the moment.

"It's because of the tama," the store owner supplied.

"Well that explains the pink spirit thread and aura, but what about the blue?"

"The blue color is due to her being a miko. Ordinary people have white spirit threads, while Shinigamis have red. Holy priestesses and monks with strong spiritual power have blue."

"Her? Holy?" Ichigo scoffed.

The vein on Kagome's forehead throbbed dangerously, heat rising to her face. Why was this guy picking on her? What is it with her that he kept trying to bait her? She kept her mouth shut, refusing to take the bait. "You were saying something about me turning twenty-one, Urahara-san?"

Getting back to the important topic, Kisuke nodded. "I guess the best way to explain it would be that the jewel will mature by the time you're twenty-one and you will have full control of it again. It should have happened right around when you were sixteen or so, but since it wasn't inside you, it took a bit longer than that."

"And what happens before this maturation?"

"The power will continue to attract everything that hungers for it between here and Soul Society," came the casual reply. It was almost as if he was talking about the weather.

"If she's leaking power, couldn't I just help her with it like with Kurosaki and release it into the atmosphere?" Uryuu was stronger than he was years ago, such a job wouldn't even require much effort for him now. This time, he was sure that he wasn't going to get bloody knuckles.

"It doesn't work that way," Urahara said, shooting down the option. If only things were that simple…

"And what happens **after **the maturation?" Orihime piped up.

For someone who was a well of information a moment ago, the former Shinigami Captain was tighter than a clam this time. He glanced at the clock and clucked his tongue. "Ara, would you look at the time? I didn't realize I have been dallying for so long." His eyes formed a straight line as he smiled, waving his right hand in the air apologetically. "I promised the others I wouldn't be gone for too long, you know how Jinta and Ururu get when left alone for too long," he said, referring to the two children that attended to his Shinigami shop when he was away. "I'm sure Tessai is pulling his hair out in frustration by now," he added.

Tessai was like his assistant in a way, and the children were somewhat afraid of him, so Ichigo wondered why the old man looked like he was trying to get away from them as quickly as possible, when he had just managed to turn their worlds upside down in the span of several minutes.

"Hey, ousan," Ichigo called out to the shop owner, but the guy was already poised to jump off of the window sill.

"Kagome-saaaaaaaaaan," Urahara saluted the miko. "I'm sure that this isn't the last that we've seen of each other. If you need anything, anything at all, Ichigo knows where to find me. Be careful, Ichigo you help keep our little miko safe and Ja matte ne, until we meet again!" No one managed to get a word out before he disappeared in a flash.

"Does anybody feel like the important details have been left out, or is it just me?" Kagome thought out loud after a moment of silence.

Four pairs of head nodded in response.

"Oh!" Orihime exclaimed suddenly, "The rain stopped and," she looked out the window, "the water has receded!"

What? Kagome thought incredulously, thinking it too good to be true. It didn't just rain like that, flood like it was The Day After Tomorrow and then have everything back to normal barely a day afterwards. She looked out into the street and sure enough, the flood that stranded them last night was nowhere to be seen. As if it didn't even exist to begin with. Everything was freshly kissed by the rain, the only evidence that there was a storm.

How weird.

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"Let me get this straight," Ichigo said, staring down at her, "I don't like you and I really don't care what happens to you." Kagome glared at him and opened her mouth to answer, but he cut her off, continuing, "If it wasn't for you cousin, who I know will be upset if something bad happened to you, I wouldn't even _consider_ doing you this favor. If it wasn't for the fact that my friends backed me into a corner, I wouldn't be here right now," he finished, making it sure that she understood what this was. He didn't want her to get the impression that he was doing this to protect her because he was told to, or worse, because he liked her or anything like that. She wasn't even his type.

In fact, he didn't have any type at all. All women were trouble, plain and simple. The one he was oh so kindly escorting back home and protecting from any potential Hollow attacks seemed like a bigger pain in the neck than most.

"Eat me, Strawberry-chan." Kagome smiled at him sweetly as the Shinigami's eyes doubled in size at the new nickname. She didn't want to get into a fight with him in public, so she gave him her best angelic expression and batted her eyelashes at him innocently.

Whatever retort he had died in his throat and he tore his eyes away from the insufferable onna, glaring at the scenery as it whizzed past them instead.

They were currently on a train back to where Kagome lived. From what he was told, it was some sort of shrine. He didn't volunteer for this, but they left him no choice when Ishida quickly offered to take Inoue home.

With old man Urahara's warnings still ringing in his ears, Ichigo had been left with no other option but to at least sort of look out for her, at least until after whatever reinforcements from Soul Society came, if they did. They would probably leave THIS to him as well, recalling the past few months of relentless Hollow-fighting without any sign of anybody from Soul Society at all.

Just his luck. One of this days, his reputation was going to be ruined and he was going to be labeled as a 'good guy', he just knew it.

They got off the train at the next stop and Ichigo had no trouble following the girl as she weaved her way through the crowd. Several minutes later had them climbing the steps to the shrine, but a voice called out to them, making them stop.

"Higurashi!"

Kagome turned around, resisting the urge to groan. Ichigo turned to the voice curiously, and watched as a boy around their age caught up to them.

"Hojo-kun!"

"Are you alright, Higurashi?" Hojo asked, clasping Kagome's hands into his own. He called the shrine last night to chat with Kagome, but her mother informed him that she hadn't come home yet. Considering how fierce the rain was last night, he had been beside himself with worry, thinking about the sickly girl braving the harsh weather outside, trying to get home.

He was so worried that he decided to stop by today and see if Kagome managed to make it home safely, since the rain and flood seemed to have miraculously disappeared. He was a bit startled when he noticed that his Kagome wasn't alone. There was a man with her, with orange hair and a frown on his face. He was taken aback for a second, wondering what he did to warrant the unfriendly face.

Kagome noticed the exchange. "Hojo-kun, this is Ichigo. Ichigo, this is Hojo-kun. He's a friend from highschool," she didn't know why she bothered to explain her relationship with Hojo to Ichigo. Not that it was any of his business anyway, because it wasn't.

"Nice to meet you –"

"Kurosaki," Ichigo grit out, narrowing his eyes at this Hojo person. He didn't want to be familiar with this guy.

Hojo gulped and hastily let Kagome's hands go. "-Kurosaki," he said.

"Did you have anything in particular that you wanted to say to Kagome?" He raised a brow and towered at the boy. Did he have to use his scary face to scare this schmuck away? What was he to the girl anyway? Her boyfriend? He scowled, making Hojo shrink back from the ferocity of it.

"Er… nice to see you're safe and well, Higurashi!" Hojo bit out. "I'll uh, I guess I'll catch you later, bye!" He rushed down the steps, taking two at a time and disappeared into the distance.

Kagome looked at him funny, trying to figure out what he just did. Hojo had always been really dense, but no amount of anvil-sized hints ever made him leave her alone. The guy was absolutely delusional.

"What?" He snapped, irritated. "Upset that I chased away your _boyfriend_?"

Kagome shook her head, resisting a silly urge to giggle. "Hojo-kun is not my boyfriend," she rolled her eyes at him. They continued climbing the stairs, Ichigo allowing Kagome to walk ahead of him… and it wasn't because he liked the view from behind!

"Seemed like it to me."

"Well, he's not. He's just someone who can't take hints."

The explanation seemed to pacify him, and Kagome couldn't name the feeling that fluttered in her stomach. Now that she was home, did that mean that she wasn't going to see him again? They did have a class together, but…

"Great job scaring that spineless boy out of here, Kurosaki," came a voice from under the Tree of All Ages, startling them. "And if I had known beforehand how beautiful our ward was going to be, I would have come here sooner," said Yumichika, the Fifth Seat of the Eleventh Shinigami Division said, stepping out from under the tree dramatically. He flicked his hair to the side, making sure to show the miko his best angle. With the sun shining down on him a certain way, he was sure that he resembled a magnificent rainbow.

Kagome didn't know what to say to the colorful peacock, looking at his colorfully decorated eyelash and taking in his strange pose.

"Does it make you want to do the Luck-Luck Dance?" Ikakku asked, emerging from behind his fellow Eleventh Division member. "Yo, Ichigo!" He waved at his fellow Shinigami and then gasped when he saw Kagome. "Your beauty knows no bounds, I agree with my teammate. Let me honor it by presenting you with my good luck dance!" He bowed with a flourish and began to do a series of body undulations that looked unnatural, especially when performed by a bald man with red eyeshadow.

Ichigo had his face behind his palm, debating whether to bang his head against something hard or knock the two Eleventh Division Shinigamis' heads together.

Kagome resisted the urge to hide behind Ichigo at the appearance of these strange men, but she did step a little bit closer to him, just a little bit of precaution in case one of the lunatics on her yard decided to come after her.

"Why do I always get stuck with these blathering idiots?" Ichigo and Kagome turned to look down at the newcomer. "Yo," Hitsugaya Toushiro, Captain of the Tenth Division greeted, "we're here to make sure that nothing bad befalls the miko," he explained.

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This chapter was typed up faster than the previous one because I was so inspired by all the reviews! Wai no jutsu! J.Curl-chan, I shall keep in mind that people telling me to jump off a cliff because of my fanfic is good. That has got to be the best advice/review I have ever been given. XD

I've been alternating between typing this chapter and the GSD fic… but I feel sooooooo lazy! (bangs head into nearest wall)

**DISCLAIMER for every chapter:** I don't own the rights to Inuyasha or Bleach. I just like to use their characters, murder their personalities and use them for my own amusement in a whacked out crossover crackfic.

**A/N:** I'm sorry if those unnamed characters are a bit confusing. I feel like I shouldn't name them just yet because I don't want to ruin the surprise… BUT… most of you have guessed who the guy is but none have guessed who the girl is yet. Teehee! Yes, it's obvious that the guy is Ichigo's Zanpaktou (soul slayer), Zangetsu. The person he keeps talking to is cough-cough-static-cough. XP (whistles innocently at Naien) I really don't like to portray Kagome as helpless and defenseless, and the five-year gap should be enough time to make her grow into what she is right now in this fic. Not so much of the self-pitying angst-filled Kagome anymore. P

Oh and I didn't make that part up about the Shikon no Tama being in Kagome's heart when she was born… er, sort of anyway. Anyone who has seen the entire series can attest that they have flashbacks of Kagome's birth near the ending of the series, and if you look at the scene where Mama Higurashi holds Kagome in the hospital, the Shikon glows in baby Kagome's chest area. I don't know if that was just some anime fluke or not because I haven't read any of the manga. P

Jye-sama, you stop poking the kawaii manjuu right now! Whipped…? _runs for her kawaii life_ OMG Aizen-taichou. _swoons, drools, throws unmentionables at him and attack glomps like the rabid fangirl that she is _

I think I'm progressing more with this story in my warped little mind than what I actually _write_. (Sweatdrops) I think I have imagined several, SEVERAL chapters of this already but only have up until this chapter to show for it. lol (is ashamed of self)

You know who's sending all those Hollows after them? (says in a stage whisper) It's my EVIL Jye-sama, that's who! (flees)

**Seiteki** – no they don't show Bleach in the US, but you can get it on torrent for free. It still hasn't finished in Japan. ) Maybe you can try reading up on it on Wikipedia: http / en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Bleachanime

And on a side note… (blinks) What is that "reply" button on the signed reviews? O.O I've been away from for far too long. Lol

_I wonder if anybody caught that teenie hint in this chapter… _skips off to eat chocolate and cuddle with her Ichi plushie.

Review onegaishimasu!


	5. Bleanuyasha 5

I have never read a single Bleach manga even though I am currently up to date with the series, so expect **no** **Bleach manga spoilers **on this fic as well as** no** **Inuyasha manga spoilers **because I haven't read a single one of them either. I don't like spoilers when I don't want to be spoiled or spoilers given without warning, so rest assured that the only spoilers on this fic will only be up to the October 2005 animes of both series, like I said in the first chapter.

**- Bleanuyasha 5 -**

Ichigo assured her that despite the newcomers having a few loose screws in the head, they were friendly allies, which put Kagome's mind at ease. She was informed by the Captain that they were all Death Gods, sent by the authorities in Soul Society to act as a 'precaution' against anything that would wish to harm her.

It irritated her that people she didn't even know would just go and assume that she was a weak damsel in distress, in need of protection, but the little guy claiming to be their leader for this 'mission' was so darn cute, she couldn't find it in her heart to send them away. He was just so adorable that Kagome had to restrain herself from patting him on the head each time he opened his mouth and pretended to talk like a grown up. She couldn't really tell what his exact age was, looking at his face, but based on his height, she presumed that he was probably younger than or the same age as her brother Souta.

If it had been anyone else, Kagome would have definitely put him or her in his or her place after making such a statement about making sure that nothing bad befell her. She managed to take care of herself just fine all these years, so she could not see why everybody seemed to want to 'take care' of her all of a sudden. However, they were only following orders. They did not really have a choice in the matter if their superiors told them that this was what they should do.

Sighing in acceptance for now (at least until she found out more about them), she invited them into the house, offering them something to drink. Her polite inquiry if their trip to the shrine tired them out was met with amused smiles and heads shaking no. What was so amusing with her question, she didn't know. Maybe Soul Society wasn't far from where she lived? Where could she find this society anyway?

Her mom was delighted to have company. When she heard the door open and Kagome shout out "Tadaima!" she rushed to greet her daughter at the door, but was pleasantly surprised to find that her daughter had brought friends along with her. The last friend her daughter brought to the house had been Inuyasha. Her normal high school friends visited now and then, but nobody had been as interesting as Inuyasha was, in Mama Higurashi's opinion.

She felt a small feeling of disappointment when a quick check produced no dog-ears amongst the guests. Decorated eyebrows and red eyeshadow were interesting, but it did not warrant a petting. The shortest one was cute though. She was probably no older than her own Souta. She immediately asked if they were going to stay for dinner and the young men shuffled their feet until the green-eyed one with the white hair said yes, they were. Such a cute little fellow he is. Delighted that her eldest had once again began to make friends, she instructed Kagome to entertain their guests while she went to the store to get more ingredients for some Oden tonight.

Kagome perked up at the promise of Oden, which didn't go unnoticed. The Shinigamis from Soul Society wondered what this oden was. The miko's mother said 'ingredients', so it was safe to assume that it was some type of food. Perhaps it was special like the "juice pack", a delicious drink only found in the living world and one that was rumored to be hard to figure at first. A rumor about the juice pack circulated among the members of the Fourth Shinigami Squad Division years ago, which slowly spread to the other Divisions. Today, the juice pack had a legendary reputation in all of Soul Society.

Ichigo decided to stay for a while, eager to hear any news from Soul Society. They took their shoes off at the entrance and were ushered to the kitchen, where the dining table was, and they caught up as the girl prepared to cook something. Only a few minutes later, Kagome balanced two bowls in her arms with ease, setting them down expertly in front of her guests. She went back for two more and one for her then sat down, saying "Itadakimasu!" before she snapped her chopstick in half and proceeded to eat.

The orange-haired Shinigami did the same, but the three from Soul Society paused. They were looking at their bowls curiously.

"What is this food called?" Ikakku inquired, picking his bowl up. Steam was rising from the inside, but the yellow container was cool to the touch.

"Instant ramen," replied Kagome. She didn't feel like cooking anything filling that would leave less room for her oden later on. She watched as they examined their bowls carefully. Have they never seen or heard of three-minute ramen before?

When the little one dug in, so did the other two. They introduced themselves as Madarame Ikakku, Ayasegawa Yumichika (they were from the Eleventh Division, which according to them was the strongest) and Hitsugaya Toushiro from the Tenth Division.

"Why are you together, considering that you're from different Divisions?" Kagome asked curiously in between bites.

"Because these two are idiots and someone needs to babysit them," was Toushiro's reply.

"Why couldn't their own Division Leader have accompanied them?" She was informed enough to know that there were supposed to be thirteen Shinigami squads and each squad had their own Captain. She still couldn't believe that the little boy sitting in her kitchen was a captain (they must have an easy time selecting one or perhaps they were taken by his boyish cuteness), but she humored him by believing what he said.

"Zaraki-taichou," he said, referring to Zaraki Kenpachi, Ikakku and Yumichika's squad leader, "is… indisposed." The person was a hazard to society and he might cause more damage than good in the living world. He cared mostly about fighting and had a tendency to seek out those who he thought to be strong and liked to fight them.

"What about the other captains?"

Hitsugaya's brows wrinkled. "They are otherwise engaged." Which translated to he was the one left to bully after the choices were narrowed down.

It was almost like a rule that Yamamoto-Genryusai Shigekuni, the General and First Squad Captain, was never deployed to go anywhere. Generals had men to do the dirty work and besides, he was old. His bones probably needed lots of rest.

Soi Fong, Captain of the Second Squad, was also the Commander of Soul Society's Covert Operations and Executive Militia. She had far too many responsibilities to go traipsing into the living world. Short of the God of Flash Yoruichi herself, no one could fill in for her.

The Captain of the Third Squad, Ichimaru Gin, was still under close supervision, despite proving his allegiance to the good side. Sending him out to important missions out of Soul Society (and out of Genryusai's close watch) was out of the question.

The Fourth Shinigami Division was the only medic squad they had. Unohana Retsu-taichou wasn't the type of person to leave her patients behind either.

Hinamori Momo was still new to being the Fifth Squad's new Captain, but she **was **considered for the mission.

Sixth Squad Kuchiki Byakuya-taichou had Living World-experience before, but he was too busy preparing for his younger sister's wedding to be bothered right now. So was his fukutaichou, Abarai Renji, who was to be the groom. Noble House weddings were so complicated.

When the Seventh Squad's Leader, Komamura Sajin, was considered for the mission, he merely stood there with his huge bamboo bucket helmet impassively. Since he had a strong sense of doing the right thing, if he was ordered to do it, he would probably haven't even batted an eye and obeyed the order without question. But it was obvious from his height and helmet he insisted on wearing, that he was going to gather unwanted attention in the Living World. Was there even a gigai (false body) that would be able to accommodate him? It was also safe to conclude that humans weren't used to having a talking animal bigger than most of them talk.

It would probably have done Kyouraku Shunsui good to get off of his daily routine of lazily chewing a piece of grass while staring at the clouds if he was sent. Despite his flowery kimono, he was a very skilled warrior. And even if you can repeatedly see him passed out over bottles of sake while his Vice-Captain dragged him to bed, he was a very reliable man. If only they trusted him well enough to be alone with a miko who liked to wear short skirts…

Hisagi Shuhei, Ninth Squad Captain, like Hinamori Momo, was also a fresh recruit to the Squad Leader ranks. It wasn't as if they discriminated against new Captains, because no one became a Captain unless they were skilled enough (they had to go through several tests before their Captainship was approved, not to mention that they had to have good recommendations and backing from the current Captains), but it was rumored to be that ever since "That Incident", the Soul Society higher ups were more protective and watchful of any new Captains in the Thirteen Squads.

The Twelfth Squad Leader, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, wasn't even considered as an option to go on this mission. If asked, the official statement would probably be along the lines of "He needs to concentrate on his research and development projects, thus having no time to go dallying in the real world," but everyone in Soul Society knew that they feared that he would probably experiment on the miko that they were supposed to protect rather than to care for her well-being.

Jyuushiro Ukitake-taichou is a strong Squad Leader, and very well-respected among his peers. Ever since his rookie days, he was popular and had no trouble gaining friends. He would have been the perfect taichou to accompany the Third and Fifth Seat of the Eleventh Division, if not for his illness.

This left Hitsugaya Toushiro, Captain of the Tenth Squad. Did they consider that he might also have other priorities that he had to take care of? No, because according to them, his well-endowed fukutaichou Matsumoto Rangiku could do the paperwork. Did they not know how much Matsumoto loved to _avoid_ doing paperwork? Apparently not and maybe it was because they were too busy ogling her chest.

Wasn't he supposed to be a powerful guardian of heaven that appeared rarely? What did he have to do to earn full respect in Soul Society… grow several inches? Actually, he did, but no one seemed to notice it. He was even taller than Hinamori now, and he was on even grounds with the miko, but why did he still feel like people looked at him as some kind of kid?

Because he was a Captain, and as a Captain, it was his job to keep the order in Soul Society, he accepted the mission. Even if it meant babysitting subordinates from the Eleventh Division.

Blowing carefully at the piping hot noodles, he felt like he tasted heaven when it hit his pallet. Maybe he had to reevaluate his opinion about this mission. This ramen was like food sent by the Kami themselves. The miko might even offer to feed them some more of this if they stayed long enough, he could only hope.

"What are you eating?" Pink hair was visible from below the table. It hopped on to Ikakku's shoulder, peered closely at his bowl and sniffed. "It smells delicious!"

"Where have you been, fukutaichou?" Ikakku asked as he kept his instant ramen cup out of her reach. His mouth was watering to take another bite. Fukutaichou or not, this was his food, _his_ ramen. Not hers.

Kusajiki Yachiru, the pink-haired Vice-Captain of the Eleventh Squad, wrinkled her nose and snatched the cup out of Pachinko Head's hands to inspect it closer. His efforts to keep it away from her were no match for her speed. "There was an odd feeling around a building on the grounds so I had to check it out." While waiting for the miko to arrive, she got bored and announced that she was going to go ahead and take a look around. She found a fat kitty cat which she engaged in a staring contest for more than half an hour, before it looked like it decided she was not a threat and flounced away. Later on, she was drawn to what felt like old magic from a small building and went to investigate.

It turned out to be a house built around a dry well. Why anyone would build a house around a well that didn't even have water baffled her. She didn't know how long she stayed there peering into the dark depths, but a delicious aroma filled her nose, snapping her out of her stupor. Following the smell led her to her teammates gathered around a table in the kitchen. Ichi was there too, with a girl with pretty hair.

"Hi Ichi!" Ikakku wasn't fast enough to get his cup back, ending up shaking the table as he made a grab for her and ended up with air.

"Hi Yachiru, I didn't expect to see you here."

"Is that the miko?" She ducked again as the Third Seat of the Eleventh Division tried to grab her.

"Yeah, that's her."

"Kawaii!" Kagome exclaimed. She wanted to touch the chibi's hair. Was that real? It was pink! Her fingers itched to pet the cute little girl who was now running circles around them, keeping the stolen cup out of poor Ikakku's reach. "I can make you a new cup, Ikakku-san."

"Just Ikakku would do, miko-sama." Yachiru stuck her tongue out at him and sat beside Toushiro, reaching for a pair of chopsticks.

"Then you should call me Kagome," she smiled. No one has called her "miko-sama" for a long time now and it was unnerving. Exactly three minutes later, a new cup was set in front of the bald Shinigami. It seemed like no matter who you were, where you came from or what you were; no one was immune to the power of the ramen.

Several minutes and empty ramen cups later, the sated bunch retreated to the living room, where the Soul Society guests were then introduced to the television. It didn't take any time explaining what the remote was for, and the Vice-Captain quickly gained control of it, wisely seeking refuge on top of the Captain's shoulders while she flipped through the channels in fascination.

Kagome decided now was a good time to discuss their business and cleared her throat. "Shiro-kun," Hitsugaya bit his tongue from automatically correcting her and telling her that he should be called Taichou instead of the familiar nickname, "I was wondering why a four-person team is required to watch over me. I've lived all this time without any… round the clock bodyguards…" Hanyous not counting, "and I think I can take care of myself just fine." She wasn't some damsel in distress that needed a Prince Charming to rescue her anymore. "I appreciate the concern but you don't have to stay here and keep an eye on me. This Soul Society business is overwhelming, but if I need any help or more information, Urahara-san told me I could go to him."

Hitsugaya turned to the miko, mindful of the fukutaichou on his shoulder. "Urahara Kisuke already contacted you?" He was impressed. How come that man always seemed to be a step ahead of everything else that Soul Society was up to? "I don't think you are aware of this miko-sama," he pointed out.

"Just Kagome is fine," she repeated.

"—Kagome-san," Hitsugaya corrected, "but the fact that he thought it best to get involved with you means that we aren't wasting our time here."

All eyes, ears and attention except for the girl perched on the boy's shoulder were focused on her. The pink-haired cutie was too busy paying attention to the Powerpuff Girls.

"Why exactly are you here anyway?" Ichigo asked. "And why does it seem like nobody's assigned in the area where I live anymore?" His voice raised a pitch, recalling all the extra hours he and Ishida had to put into Hollow-extermination. "Don't think you guys can slack off just because I'm there," he growled and crossed his arms across his chest in intimidation.

"That's part of the reason why we're here." Yumichika answered and Ikakku nodded.

"Has there been a spike in Hollow activity lately?"

"Yes," Ichigo grumbled. Duh.

Hitsugaya sat forward, his face looking serious. If it wasn't for the chibi perched on his shoulder, Kagome would have been nervous. Somehow, having a cute girl with pink hair riding between your neck and upper arm ruined the effect. "Soul Society _has_ been assigning Shinigamis in your area, Ichigo. The miko's as well. But someone has been getting rid of them." His face darkened.

"Do you know why?"

"Our sources speculate that whoever is behind this has been trying to smoke out the miko. If there aren't any Shinigamis in the area, when the Hollows they send are cleaned out, the miko might be there. The pull of the Shikon no tama is strong, but they can't pinpoint her exact location until they know exactly where she is." The chibi shifted on his shoulder. "When a soul is reborn in the real world, even if it has a strong spirit force, like yours and Ichigo has, it doesn't necessarily mean that its location can be pinpointed in an instant. Even the most skilled of trackers cannot do this."

Maybe if they had a strong sense of smell, like an inu youkai or an inu hanyou they could, the miko thought as she listened with half an ear to their conversation. The Shinigamis continued discussing, Ichigo plying Hitsugaya with questions, but mostly complaints, as to why all this is happening.

Kagome was trying not to get annoyed with the whole thing but she found it hard to do so. It wasn't like she was trying to avoid responsibility for being the guardian of the jewel, because she wasn't. Taking responsibility lightly had taught her a huge lesson when she was fifteen.

Why she was getting annoyed was because she thought she was done with this. Sure, she could talk to Midoriko, who is kind of technically inside her since the jewel is as well, but that was beside the point. By leaving everything behind and closing the well, she thought that her adventures were over and the days of risking her life were gone. She wasn't even sure what they were up against right now.

Battling Hollows was a concept she couldn't get used to yet. She always thought youkai and had to correct herself in mid-thought. Maybe if she distracted them with pocky, they would leave her alone. It always worked for Shippou…

"We probably shouldn't tell Inoue about this."

"What would Orihime-chan have anything to do with this?" A colorful brow rose in question.

"They're cousins," Ichigo supplied.

"You mean the miko is related to the big booby lady?"

"Heh, who knew?" This came from Ikakku as he plopped backwards at the couch. Another incentive as to why they should be doing this. Orihime-chan was one of Soul Society's heroes.

"Beauty clearly runs in their family," Yumichika said, which earned an eye roll from Hitsugaya.

"And not only that." Ikakku chuckled.

Kagome was snapped out of her reverie. Were they looking at her boobs? "Huh?"

"You have big boobs, too." Yachiru enthusiastically chirped. The miko's face reddened, the heat rose to her face in an alarming rate. The others tried not to laugh, so Ikakku discreetly coughed behind his hand and Yumichika's decorated brow twitched madly.

Changing the subject, Ichigo asked "Does that mean you won't be attending the wedding?" This shifted the attention away from the miko's personal parts.

Hitsugaya nodded. He didn't plan on telling the miko right away, but since the subject was already brought up… "Yes we are." He paused, as Ichigo lifted his brow at Kagome's direction in silent question. "And our instructions were to take the miko with us when we do."

Wait. "What?" Kagome thought she didn't understand it right. Something about a wedding and taking them with her, right? Seemed odd, since she didn't even know the couple who was going to get married, but it wasn't unheard of before, so why did the little Taichou look like he didn't want to impart that piece of info with them? And why was Ichigo making those weird faces?

"Abarai Renji, the sixth squad fukutaichou, is marrying the little sister of his taichou, Kuchiki Rukia. The wedding will be in a couple of weeks and we're going back to Soul Society to attend." Yumichika happily rephrased for her.

"And you're coming with us!" Chirped Ikakku.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" Kagome shrieked, startling a flock of birds nesting on the God Tree. "Isn't Soul Society a place for dead souls? Why do I have to come with you guys?" Why were they bringing her with them?

"It's an order." Hitsugaya stated.

"And I'm just supposed to roll over and follow it because you were ordered to do it? I'm not bound by your society's laws so why do I have to obey them?" Her nose rose into the air in defiance, chin jutting forward in protest. They should be thankful she didn't kick them out of the house the first time they met and slap some wards to keep them out.

"How will we be able to protect you if you don't go with us?" He looked really puzzled, bless his heart.

"But I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" Did she hear an echo somewhere?

The miko's protests fell on deaf ears as the Shinigami insisted that they do their mission with or without her cooperation. If that meant that they had to hog tie her and drag her to Soul Society when the time came, she had no choice but to put up with it. Even if she didn't need their assistance at all (she doubted if any of them truly believed her to be perfectly capable of taking care of herself, except maybe for Yachiru, since she was a girl like her), they insisted on providing it. In her opinion, they were overreacting. They were blowing the situation out of proportion. This new threat they keep talking about couldn't be more menacing than Naraku, could it?

Everyone was always after the Shikon no tama. Why her? Why it? Wasn't there some other artifact or jewel out there capable of granting power? Why don't they search for a magic lamp instead of insisting on coming after her – er, the jewel? Which was technically her, if she were to believe Urahara-san… and her dreams and or slash delusions.

Any so-called 'evil' would be small fry compared to Naraku. And anything would be better than this. Already she was feeling like someone on parole, with several parole officers intent on trailing her every move.

The issue of lodging was also discussed. Her family had no objections to Inuyasha coming, going and even spending nights in her room before. Her mother trusted her and gave her free reign of what to do. She doubted if her mother would even bat an eye if she brought an army of Shinigami to stay in her room, if they could all fit. But that had only been one guest. She now had three guys and a chibi.

They had an extra room in the house, but Hitsugaya adamantly refused and strongly insisted that at least one of them be with her at all times. She wasn't the least bit amused when Ichigo suggested that she clean out her closet so they can sleep in it. She didn't know why but the guy managed to stir emotions in her she wasn't even aware she had.

"Remind me not to have a sleepover at your house," she gritted out cheerfully, putting on a fake smile.

"I'll do that… oh wait, but you already did. Without my permission even!"

"Well if I had known that an ogre like **you** owned that bed, or wait – _lived_ – with Ishida-kun, I would have preferred to freeze outside last night anyway!"

The Shinigami blinked owlishly at the two, surprised at their sudden show of tempers.

"Oh yeah?" Ichigo taunted, "Well maybe you should have instead of invading my private space and calling me names!"

She balled her fists in an attempt to reign in her temper. Why was she letting herself get reeled in by the slightest provocation with this guy? What was it with him? She had to tell herself that he wasn't cute at all over and over again. He was always frowning, even when he looked like he was brooding, and from the moment they met, he hasn't been friendly to her at all!

Yachiru giggled. She already liked the miko (not just because she gave her ramen) and it looked like she was having fun with Ichi, too.

Hitsugaya said, "You know, you two are acting like little kids."

"I dunno about that… They remind me of an old married couple." Ikakku earned a dual glare for that remark.

"Me?"

"Married to him! I'd rather die an old maid than marry someone like him!"

"Oh yeah?" He leered. "With your looks and those huge eyes, you probably will!"

They scoffed, glared and then snubbed each other childishly, both panting from repressed emotions.

"—or I can go with the two little kids part," Ikakku coughed and then decided to keep his mouth shut, not wanting them to turn their outbursts at him. Humans were weird.

Of all the things that… why would he even… she didn't even know him for more than a day and yet… what the heck was his problem! She growled low in her throat, wishing she had some subduing beads to put around his neck – that'll teach him to mess with her! Ack… and what was wrong with her? Why did she allow herself to always lose her temper like this? Perhaps she needed to meditate and gather her thoughts. She shot one more glare his way and he glared back at her.

"Keh. Why are you still here anyway? What, are you going to play bodyguard, too?"

Ichigo snorted. "Not likely, woman."

Gr. Infuriating… irritating… annoying… antagonistic… contrary… unfriendly… cute… wait no, scratch that… unattractive… grumpy little… She turned away from the aggravating man. "One of you can stay and sleep with me in my bedroom and it will be Yachiru-chan. One of you could share a room with my brother, share the spare room together, or sleep outside." A hand stopped any protests they were going to make. "That is my final offer. Either we go with that or I throw you out and show you how I take care of youk – I mean, _Hollows_."

In the end, the Shinigamis unanimously agreed that they would be taking shifts to keep an eye on her. Good choice.

It seemed like they were not only acquainted with Ichigo, but they had some kind of history with him as well. She suggested that they go with him and check out where he lived, catch up and all that, but the little Taichou insisted that they had a mission to complete.

Ikakku and Yumichika looked like they were in favor of her suggestion, but quickly sobered up when their captain reminded them of their jobs. An innocent question as to if a captain and a vice-captain couldn't handle guard duty for several hours proved beneficial to the Eleventh Squad duo, as Hitsugaya-taichou grudgingly told them to do as they please because he and the fukutaichou could handle an unseen threat all by themselves while the duo gallivanted out in the modern living world.

There was a moment of concern with the two, centering on the oden that they were curious about. Ikakku voiced that he didn't want to miss out on any potential food and or thing that would surpass the juice pack. He said this in a revered voice, and Kagome could swear he had unshed tears in his eyes as well.

"If you don't return by then, I'll be sure to set aside some leftovers for just the two of you," the miko promised.

A still pajama-clad Souta came downstairs rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Nee-chan? You're home." He perked up, his worry for his sister from last night going away. He was so worried that he stayed up most of the night, staring at his ceiling and listening to the rain. With Inu no niichan gone, he had to step up and be the man of the family and that meant taking care of his sister, even if she was older than him. He finally succumbed to sleep at the wee hours of the morning and he just woke up. Souta looked at the people gathered in their living room curiously.

The guests stood and Kagome introduced them. "Everyone, this is my brother Souta. They'll be staying with us for a bit." She explained and individually introduced them. She told him why they were here and what they were, she didn't keep any secrets from her family after all.

Souta's eyes widened. Ever since his sister stopped her time-travel, they haven't had any extraordinary guests in years. "Cool!" He looked at the guy who seemed right around his age. "You wanna go play some video games?"

Hitsugaya blinked in response. "Video games?"

Souta grinned and grabbed his arm. "Come on, I'll show you. I'm sure you'll like it." The two boys dragged themselves to the den where Souta had his Playstation 2 and proceeded to show his new friend how to operate it.

Yachiru decided that the television was her new friend, so she plopped back on the sofa and searched for something to watch.

Ikakku and Yumichika were going with Ichigo, and Kagome saw them to the door. She and Ichigo still kept shooting glares at each other, keeping the other two amused.

There was no reason for any type of animosity between them at all, especially since she seemed like a really kind person, but Ichigo couldn't help himself. He wondered why.

When Kagome opened the door, in came Buyo who stopped in her tracks, as if she was sizing up their guests. When she turned her attention to Ichigo, the hairs on her back raised as she hissed and swiped a paw at him. Ichigo merely raised a questioning brow at it, wondering if the cat was as mental as the owner.

Buyo suddenly launched herself at Ichigo's leg, startling him, and dug her claws, making him wince in pain. "What the—" He flailed his leg wildly, trying to shake the cat off of him.

"Oh my gosh, Buyo! Stop that!" Kagome tried to pry Buyo off of Ichigo's leg but the cat had a firm grip and really sharp claws. "Buyo what's wrong with you?" Said sharp claws dug into the leg and she could hear Ichigo hiss in pain. When she finally managed to pry her off of Ichigo's leg, Buyo wriggled out of her grasp and launched herself at his face.

Ichigo caught her in mid leap and quickly tossed her out the open door and into the yard. "Your cat is insane!"

Ikakku had his hand up against the wall to support him, he was laughing too hard to stand up on his own. Yumichika was sharing his mirth as well. He didn't know that cats could fly.

"Buyo doesn't usually act like that," Kagome wrung her hands and bit her lip, trying not to get infected with the Shinigamis' laughter. "She's a very docile, very kind cat."

Ichigo sputtered. "KIND? She ATTACKED me! Your **_docile _**cat attacked me without any provocation and what the –"his eyes widened as he watched the fat cat morph right before their eyes. Its eyes turned red and its white fur was lined with various black markings accentuated with a diamond shape on its forehead. He blinked at its two tails.

It growled at him again, then transformed into a larger beast, with large saber-fangs and fire now adorning its body. His protective instincts kicked in, his stinging leg forgotten. He pushed Kagome behind him just as Yumichika and Ikakku recovered from their earlier amusement and flanked him on both sides. This wasn't funny anymore, her cat turning out to be a nekomata. He fished out his Shinigami Badge from his pockets but got shoved aside, out of the way.

"Kirara!" Kagome gasped, walking forward.

Ichigo grabbed her arm, earning another growl from the feline as she stepped towards them. "Kagome stay back, we'll take care of this."

"No! Kirara – I mean Buyo – or Kirara who was pretending to be Buyo - is my cat! Or was a cat of my friend or is… errr… Don't harm her!" She finished, wrenching away from his grip and crossing the yard towards the vicious-looking cat. Kagome ignored the protests behind her as she reached to pet her long-lost friend. "Kirara," Kagome whispered, her eyes misting.

Kirara purred contentedly as Kagome rubbed her ear. "I didn't know you were with me all the time," Kagome hugged her as the Shinigamis watched cautiously, confused.

"So the nekomata is the miko's pet? Should er… shouldn't we be worried?"

Kagome turned to them reassuringly. "No, Kirara was my friend Sango's companion and I guess she stayed even when they passed on and eventually came to live with us." Kirara shifted back to her kitten form and Kagome picked her up. "And she's **not **a nekomata! Kirara doesn't eat dead animal carcasses, nor can she shape shift into a human or perform necromancy," she corrected. At least not that she knew of.

Ichigo stepped back as she approached them, not willing to risk having the demon cat maul him again. "Did you know that she could shape shift into that fat cat?"

"No, but I'm sure you learn a lot in the span of five hundred years."

"Did you know that she was your house pet before this?" Ikakku asked, narrowing his eyes at the cat, who was too busy staring at Ichigo to pay attention to him.

"Well um, no." Kagome replied. If Kirara could talk, she would ask her why. She didn't doubt Kirara's intention's one bit, because she knew how loyal and trust-worthy the cat was, but she couldn't blame the others for doubting her, especially at how she acted right now.

"Did you know she was crazy?" Ichigo rubbed his stinging leg. Thank Kami he was wearing jeans!

Kagome decided not to glare at him as heatedly since he technically had a reason to be mad. "I don't know why she's acting like this." Kirara growled at Ichigo again. "She's usually really very friendly." To prove her point, she stood next to Yumichika and Kirara allowed him to pet her.

"Well she's not friendly to me! She **attacked **me!"

"Yeah, we saw." Ikakku chuckled.

"Let's go back inside and let me treat your leg. If you pet her while I hold her, maybe she'll get used to you." She smiled sheepishly at him as she approached with Kirara in hand. She was really happy to see a familiar face in Kirara again, but she was also concerned about why the cat attacked Ichigo without any provocation. "I don't know what would make her do that. I'm really very so-"

"Kagome, get away from him!" Her grandpa shrieked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. "Demon be gone!" He slapped several charms on Ichigo's forehead and stepped back, waiting for him to disintegrate. No demon was going to harm his precious granddaughter!

The silence in the yard was palpable; the steam going out of Ichigo's head visible, his red face only half-distinguishable from the ofudas stuck on his forehead.

**ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll**

"Are you sure that's all?"

Hojo resisted the urge to flinch back from the tone of voice. It wasn't raised, but it had an underlying bite to it, and if he didn't know any better, he would say that his friend was getting impatient. "Yes, Higurashi only had one orange-haired boy with her when I saw her this morning." He wondered why his new friend seemed like he had taken a sudden interest in his highschool crush. The guy hasn't even met Kagome, he was sure of that.

They met in college and didn't even know about the object of Hojo's affections until they were talking about girls to date one day. The question of girls was brought up and, of course, Hojo just had to mention his Kagome.

This perked his friend's interest for some reason, and he found himself sharing more and more of what he thought, observed and knew of his highschool crush. Maybe he could ask Kagome for a double date next time. His friend sure looked like he needed it…

"That is very interesting, perhaps they are dating?"

Hojo furrowed his brow. "No." Even if the man had acted a bit too territorial, scaring him away like that, they weren't holding hands when he happened upon them, so that was a good sign, right?

**ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll ll**

Uryuu laughed. He laughed as if he has never laughed before, big bellowing sounds that rocked his shoulders. "And then what happened?" His sides were hurting, but he wanted to know what happened next.

Ikakku was relishing the spotlight, telling the tale of Ichigo's adventure at the Higurashi shrine. "So the old man mistakes him for a demon and slaps some charms on his head and starts chanting to drive the "bad spirit" away. Ichigo looked mad enough to kill someone and then –"

"—and then I go home because I don't want to risk getting mauled by the crazy cat and the loony grandfather again." Ichigo came out of his room, hair wet, wearing fresh clothes with a towel around his neck.

He really did consider letting Kagome treat the scratches, even at the expense of taking his pants off, but the old man got so scandalized by the mere thought that he started chasing him around the shrine grounds yelling "Bad spirit, bad spirit, o demon be gone!" at the top of his lungs.

The old man clearly meant well, to protect his granddaughter, so Ichigo decided not to let it get to him, and went home instead. His leg was still stinging from the scratches, but at least he didn't risk being infected with some kind of cat disease now. He guessed that the laughter outside of his room was probably courtesy of him, he heard. He rolled his eyes. "Ishida, where's Kon?"

Uryuu adjusted his glasses and tried to remember when he saw the plushie last. "In your room?" He ventured a guess.

Ichigo held up his hand, containing a piece of paper. He crossed the room and handed it to Ishida. It read:

Dear Ichigo,

I have decided to run away from here and I am never coming back.

P.S.

Please do not bother looking for me because I am never coming back.

P.S.S.

I really do mean it this time, and I am never coming back.

- Kon

The piece of paper was passed on from one hand to another as they read the contents. If it was possible, Ichigo's face turned sourer. "I bet I know where he ran away to."

Ikakku and Yumichika's inquiries merely resulted in making Uryuu crack up in another bout of hysterics.

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**DISCLAIMER for every chapter:** Kubo Tite owns everything Bleach and Rumiko Takahashi owns everything Inuyasha - including Kagome - who is in no way a Mary Sue at all, (unless the writer is actually Rumiko Takahashi herself) because aside from the fact that she was created by the mind of Rumiko-san, Mary Sues are original self-inserts by the authors of the fanfics. I do not own the rights to Inuyasha or Bleach. This is just a whacked out fanfic I wrote to amuse myself with… and my Jye-sama who seems to not detest reading it as well.

All review responses for Chapter 4 can be found here: http / www . livejournal. com/users/kagometaisho/53703. html#cutid1

I DON'T know what happens to them in the manga, and I did give you a warning in the first chapter that this will only cover up to October 2005 of Bleach and Inuyasha at most, so I thought to bring back Gin because I love him. I also would have finished this chapter earlier if SOMEONE didn't poke my eye out! (manjuu glare of doom!) lol no, I was walking at the path called life and had to rescue this grandma out of a tree… /kakashi

Oh Jye-sama of mine… you just KNEW that one was coming, didn't you? 8P With the ramen and the pink chibi? XD Agh… I feel like I want to incorporate lots into the story and almost all the chapters so far are like stupid fillers. (is frustrated) Blah, and I had to type this up before I could watch Bleach 63! (wah!) But I couldn't resist and watched it and woah! Shinigami badge! Damn! (kicks fic) Well… I DID say I only know up to October 2005 of the Bleach series… 8P


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